Risk-Off Selling Hits Grain Markets Amid Profit-Taking Ahead of WASDE

Grain and livestock futures were mostly lower early Wednesday, despite sharply higher crude oil prices and the escalating war in the Black Sea region.

Mike Castle of StoneX attributed the risk-off selling to profit-taking ahead of the September WASDE on Friday. He noted that grain markets have been fading every bullish headline, including Ukraine's damage to Russia's major commodity-exporting port out of the Black Sea.

The average trade guesses for corn yield were released at 178.2 bu. per acre, down 2.5 bu. from August. Castle predicted USDA will lower yields moving from August into September, as historically they do.

StoneX's customer survey estimates came in higher than the average trade guesses, with 182.9 bu. on corn and 53.0 on soybeans. This is based on extreme weather since the August WASDE, including an extremely wet pattern in the eastern Midwest.