By Kirk Maltais


-Soybeans for May delivery fell 1.3% to $11.58 1/2 a bushel, on the Chicago Board of Trade on Monday, with traders turning their focus back to weather forecasts in the Corn Belt.

-Corn for May delivery fell 1% to $4.31 1/4 a bushel.

-Wheat for May delivery fell 0.8% to $5.51 3/4 a bushel.


HIGHLIGHTS


Progress Reports: CBOT grain futures fell ahead of this afternoon's Crop Progress report -- with the question of how farmers are progressing being the biggest focus for traders. "The U.S. planting season isn't off to a fast start, but it is too early to be overly concerned about planting delays," Doug Bergman of RCM Alternatives said in a note. "With that said, they have been seeing excessively wet weather across the south where better planting progress would be preferred."

Removing Risk: CBOT grains focused on safeguarding crop prices from the aftershocks of Iran's strike on Israel's border to end last week. With the fallout of the strike mitigated for Israel by help from Western allies, the risk premium has been cut, Karl Setzer of Consus Ag Consulting said. "Since [the strike] really was not a big deal, and Iran says it's done retaliating, the market is much less concerned with another black swan event," Setzer said.


INSIGHT


Bracing for Aggression: Iran's weekend strike on Israel did wield residual pressure on commodities across the board -- particularly energy, with oil and gas futures down. News on Friday that Iran planned to unleash an attack on Israel over the weekend sent prices higher with risk aversion. All sides appear to want to stave off further escalation in the conflict, but new aggression could spark more price volatility.

Inspections Shrink: Export inspections for U.S. corn and soybeans fell from the previous week, according to the latest weekly report from the USDA. The agency said that for the week ended April 11, corn export inspections totaled 1.33 million metric tons, while soybeans totaled 432,905 tons. Both are down from the previous week, with corn in last week's report totaling 1.44 million tons and soybeans totaling 491,872 tons. The status of export demand for U.S. grains has been a consistent factor impacting futures movement.


AHEAD


-The EIA will release its weekly ethanol production and stocks report at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.

-The USDA will release its weekly export sales report at 8:30 a.m. ET Thursday.

-The USDA will release its monthly Cattle on Feed report at 3 p.m. ET Friday.

-The CFTC will release its weekly Commitment of Traders report at 3:30 p.m. ET Friday.


Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-15-24 1521ET