Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were lower Monday amid only routine exports over the weekend and record large stocks of feed grains in the United States and globally, traders and analysts said. At 10:54 am CST (1654 GMT), corn was unchanged to 2 cents lower, with May down 3/4 at $2.09-3/4 per bushel. Locals were the main sellers. Goldenberg Hehmeyer bought 200 May, traders said.
Outlooks for big corn acreage this year in the United States also were weighing on prices. Gains in the value of the dollar and a sharp fall in soy futures added more pressure.
Position-squaring was beginning to surface ahead of the release early Thursday of USDA's March planting intentions and quarterly stocks reports. Traders expect USDA to confirm talk and speculation that has circulated over the winter about a big corn acreage this year in the United States.
Exports over the weekend were routine, including Taiwan's purchase of 60,000 tonnes of optional-origin US or Argentine corn. South Korea's Feed Association bought 52,500 tonnes of optional-origin corn for feed production from Cargill.
Traders in Tokyo and Seoul said South Korean feed makers are expected this week to seek corn and soymeal for July arrivals if offers meet their target prices. They also said some buying is expected to emerge in Japan.
The Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) said on Friday it was investigating imports of US corn to determine whether they were contaminated by an unapproved corn variety. The agency also said Seoul would require a certificate stating imports of US food-grade corn the cargo did not contain Bt10 - an insect-resistant corn strain that has not been approved for food in Korea and other countries.
USDA early Monday said corn inspected for export last week totalled 29.7 million bushels. That was within the range of estimates for 27.0 million to 30.0 million bushels.
Cash basis bids for corn on Monday were steady to firm amid slower country selling.
Friday's CFTC commitments of traders report showed that large speculators as of last Tuesday were long 119,921 lots and short 70,903 lots.
Technical support in the May contract is at $2.08-3/4 with resistance at $2.13-3/4. The nine-day relative strength index for May closed Thursday at 36. Technical traders view an RSI of 30 or less as one indication of an oversold market and 70 or more is considered an overbought market.
Oat futures were down 1/4 to 3/4 cent. May was down 1/4 at $1.58 per bushel.
Ethanol futures were flat to weak with June down 1-1/2 cents per gallon at $1.23 per gallon.
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