Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade fell 2-1/2 percent on Monday amid the global spread of bird flu and sliding outside markets including gold and crude oil, traders said.
"Bird flu as we see it pick up around the world, what it really means is poultry is a more efficient converter of grain, so as we slaughter poultry we cut into feed demand," said Don Roose, analyst and president of US Commodities, Des Moines, Iowa.
CBOT corn closed 1/2 to 7 cents per bushel lower, with March down 5-3/4 at $2.23 per bushel. May was down 6-3/4 at $2.32-3/4.
"Roughly to convert a pound of poultry to meat it takes about three pounds of feed, so when we cut into poultry production, the feed consumed gets to be a pretty substantial amount," Roose said.
Corn futures also were pressured by moisture over the weekend in the US Midwest crop region and traders said the corn market was primed for a technical setback after the recent spate of investment fund buying sharply boosted prices.
"Once you get the technicals going downhill this is what you get, there was some liquidation pressure," Roose said.
Funds sold between 10,000 and 12,000 lots on Monday, pit sources said.
Export news over the weekend failed to generate any bullish momentum for corn futures.
Taiwan on Tuesday will tender for US corn, and grain importers in South Korea and Taiwan are likely to seek US corn ahead of expectations of suspended exports from China, traders in Taipei said.
USDA on Monday said 37.0 million bushels of corn were inspected for export last week, at the low end of a range of estimates for 37.0 million to 42.0 million bushels.
And while dry weather cut into Argentina's corn crop this year, that country is still expected to remain somewhat competitive as an exporter of corn. But Argentina's corn harvest has been slowed by heavy rains over the past week, according to the Agriculture Secretariat.
Deliveries on the March contract totalled 339 lots and an ABN Amro customer was the key stopper of 233 lots and registrations with the CBOT were unchanged at 2,262 lots.
Cash basis bids for corn in the Midwest on Monday were mostly unchanged, with farmer selling stalled by the falling prices of CBOT corn futures.
Friday's CFTC commitments of traders report showed that as of last Tuesday, for futures and options combined, large speculators were long 246,828 lots, up 6,568 from the previous week and short 80,092 lots, down 14,277 lots.
Key support in the May contract was at its 200-day moving average of $2.34 per bushel and the session low was $2.31-3/4. Oat futures closed 2 cents per bushel lower to 1 cent higher, with March up 1 at $1.84 per bushel. May was down 2 at $1.87-1/2.
Comments
Comments are closed.