CBOT corn hits two-month low on technical selling, improved US crop rating

CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) corn futures tumbled to their lowest prices in more than two months on Tuesday on technical selling and better-than-expected US crop ratings issued on Monday afternoon, traders said.

* CBOT September corn settled down 5-3/4 cents at $4.11-1/4 per bushel. New-crop December corn lost 6 cents at $4.21 per bushel.

* Both contracts touched their lowest prices since May 24.

* The US Department of Agriculture, in a weekly crop progress report on Monday, said 58% of US corn was in good to excellent condition, up one percentage point from a week earlier. Analysts had on average expected 57%.

* The weather forecast for most US corn-growing areas also does not look threatening, said Tomm Pfitzenmaier, analyst for Summit Commodity Brokerage.

* Nutrien, the world's biggest fertilizer producer by capacity, estimated US corn plantings in 2019 were 85 million to 87 million acres, below the USDA's latest estimate for 91.7 million acres.

* Traders are waiting for the USDA to update its acreage estimate in August after the agency resurveyed farmers about what they planted. Growers suffered unprecedented planting delays this spring because of heavy rains.