Chicago Board of Trade corn futures fell on Wednesday due to pressure from the wheat market, but the drop in prices was held somewhat in check by underlying support from weekly ethanol data that showed tightening stocks and an uptick in production of the corn-based fuel, traders said. CBOT December corn settled down 2 cents at $3.68-1/4 per bushel on Wednesday.
The US Energy Information Administration said weekly US output of corn-based ethanol rose to 1.02 million barrels per day, while stocks of the biofuel fell to 23.90 million barrels. Traders said that the increasing pace of the harvest in the Midwest has revealed some weather-related crop damage to corn and soybeans.
But some traders said such worries are far outweighed by pressure from an expected bumper harvest. "Does the crop damage really matter right now? Not really," said Mark Gold of Top Third Ag Marketing. Analysts polled ahead of Thursday's weekly USDA export sales report expect net corn sales of 400,000 to 800,000 tonnes last week, up from 382,534 tonnes in sales the previous week.
The US dollar rose more than 1/2 percent against a basket of currencies on Wednesday, reaching a two-month high.
Comments
Comments are closed.