By Kirk Maltais


-- Wheat for July delivery rose 3.1% to $6.23 1/2 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade on Friday, with drought concerns in both the U.S. and Russia sparking short covering by fund traders.

-- Soybeans for July delivery rose 1.4% to $12.16 3/4 a bushel.

-- Corn for July delivery rose 0.1% to $4.60 1/4 a bushel.


HIGHLIGHTS


Fresh Weather Woes: A new wave of weather concerns sparked short covering in wheat throughout the day.

"[There's] more fund short covering at a more feverish pace, weather worries in Black Sea and western Kansas, eastern Colorado and Texas Panhandle areas where forecasts for rains this week fizzled out, and support from outside markets with weaker-than-expected labor numbers resurrecting hopes for an easier monetary policy by the Fed," Joel Karlin of Ocean State Research said.

The most recent data from the U.S. Drought Monitor show lingering drought in the Southern Plains and Iowa.


Big Picture: The U.S. April jobs report showed weaker-than-expected payrolls, a signal that a cooling economy could bring a Fed rate cut sooner. This provided grains with support throughout the day.

"The grain and oilseed have been beat up by managed money for the past 22 months, and they're currently benefiting from a reversal of that sentiment, combined with some supportive fundamental news," said Arlan Suderman of StoneX in a note.


INSIGHT


Higher Expectations: A new forecast from Goldman Sachs is calling for higher returns from commodities across the board, with the bank forecasting returns of 21% on commodities over 12 months on the S&P GSCI Commodity Index.

"Funds that are aggressively short CBOT commodities heading into the growing season have some reconsidering to do," said Brian Splitt of AgMarket.net.


Taking Their Opportunity: Corn dipped in morning trading, but pushed higher before the session closed.

AgResource says in a note that the dip was triggered by farmers attempting to capitalize on higher prices for corn.

At roughly $4.60 a bushel, most-active futures are at their highest prices since the start of the year. Farmer selling has been seen as a counterweight to short covering by fund investors.


Prices Rebound: The United Nations released its latest food price index, which tracks global prices for a basket of staple foods. The index averaged 119.1 points in April, up 0.3% from March's level and around 9.6% lower than a year earlier.

Cereal prices rose 0.3% in April, ending three straight months of declines.

Global wheat export prices stabilized on firm competition among major exporters, offsetting worries about crop conditions in the European Union, U.S. and Russia.

Corn export prices rose on high demand and increasing infrastructure damage in Ukraine hitting logistics, as well as production concerns in Brazil ahead of the main harvest.


AHEAD


-- Tyson Foods is scheduled to release its second-quarter earnings at 7:30 a.m. EDT Monday.

-- The USDA is due to release its weekly grains export inspections report at 11 a.m. EDT Monday.

-- The USDA is scheduled to release its weekly Crop Progress Report at 4 p.m. EDT Monday.


-- Joe Hoppe contributed to this article.


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


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-03-24 1557ET