By Kirk Maltais

--Wheat for March delivery fell 1.3% to $5.77 1/4 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade Tuesday as traders considered how a larger-than-expected Russian quota of wheat exports will affect the market.

--Corn for March delivery fell 1.2% to $4.20 3/4 a bushel.

--Soybeans for January delivery fell 0.6% to $11.62 a bushel.

HIGHLIGHTS

Bear Hug: Wheat futures trading on the CBOT led the way lower for row crops Tuesday. Egypt's buying authority purchased 170,000 metric tons of Russian and Ukrainian wheat at an average price of $262 per ton -- which is virtually unchanged from previous weeks. As a result, trading has focused more on already-known bearish news like a larger Russian export quota and a bigger-than-expected Australian crop. "U.S. and world wheat futures this week have been hit by a flood of bearish input," said AgResource.

Soaking It Up: After rainfall this weekend, reports of further precipitation expected in Brazil pressured grains, specifically corn and soybeans. "Corn tried the upside early in the day on short covering, but couldn't hold the rally," said Charlie Sernatinger of ED&F Man Capital. Showers with temperatures near or above normal are expected in both the Rio Grande do Sul and Mato Grosso regions of Brazil, said DTN.

INSIGHTS

Risky Bets?: The latest commitment of traders report, released yesterday by the CFTC, showed a net long among managed money traders at over 266,000 contracts for corn and over 195,000 contracts for soybeans. With such sizable long positions in these grains, bearish news could potentially spark a major sell-off. Would that mean the love affair for beans is over? "It is probably premature to state that as a fact... but for now, it would appear [trader] attention has turned elsewhere," said Dan Hueber of the Hueber Report.

Optimism Wilts: The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer -- a measurement of farmer optimism about the agricultural economy -- fell 16 points in November to a reading of 167, falling off of an all-time high set in October. "Producers were more pessimistic about future economic conditions on their farms in November than they were just a month earlier," said James Mintert, the barometer's principal investigator and director of Purdue University's Center for Commercial Agriculture. "This is the opposite of what happened following the November 2016 election." According to Mr. Mintert, farmers say that they expect to see higher regulations and a weaker safety net for US farmers, driving sentiment lower amid the election of President-elect Joe Biden in November.

AHEAD:

--The EIA releases its weekly update on ethanol production and inventories at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.

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

--The CFTC releases 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

12-01-20 1548ET