Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed mixed on Tuesday with nearbys pressured by rolling out of long positions and distant contracts underpinned by weather jitters, traders said.
Bearish moves in corn options contributed pressure to the July contract with FIMAT USA a key seller of 12,000 July calls ranging from $3.60-$4.60 per bushel.
There also was active buying of corn puts, another bearish factor for corn futures prices. Traders said an estimated 42,000 lots of July/September and July/December spreads were traded electronically. CBOT corn closed 3-1/2 cents per bushel lower to 2-1/2 higher, with July down 3-1/2 at $3.80-1/4 per bushel. New-crop December was down 1/4 at $3.82-3/4.
Estimated volume was large at 232,049 futures and 55,991 options, with spreading adding to volume numbers, traders said. "Everybody is juggling all these forecasts and it appears rainfall Friday and Saturday will be marginal at best in the dry eastern Corn Belt and for next week some of them are talking about a heat dome," said Tim Hannagan, analyst for Alaron Trading.
"The only rain the eastern belt will get for the next 12 to 15 days is Friday and Saturday," he said. There have been concerns that an atmospheric high pressure ridge might form over the US Midwest which could block moisture from moving into the crop region and lead to a build-up of heat.
US farmers have planted the largest land area in more than 60 years to corn because of decade-high corn prices amid surging demand for the grain to fuel the ethanol industry.
The US corn crop was off to a good start, but there were worries that potential hot and dry weather could stress the crop this summer. There already were some pockets of dryness in a few key corn-producing areas. For now, showers in the western Midwest were boosting crop prospects, DTN Meteorlogix said Tuesday. Showers in the eastern Midwest will benefit the corn crop though some locations were still too dry, especially in central Illinois.
USDA late Monday said 78 percent of the US corn crop was in good to excellent shape, unchanged from last week. Ninety-four percent of the crop has emerged, up from the 88 percent five-year average, according to the USDA.
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