Chicago corn futures ended lower on Monday, as rising tensions between Washington and Beijing raised concern about further demand risk, on top of coronavirus disruptions to biofuel and livestock feed markets.
US President Donald Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro told Fox News in an interview Monday that China's handling of the coronavirus is a bigger issue than the trade deal, and that an executive order would soon require federal agencies to purchase US-made medical products.
The coronavirus pandemic has already dented grain prices by shredding demand for corn-based ethanol biofuel and threatening to curb consumption of livestock feed after the closure of some meat factories.
CBOT most-active July corn settled down 3 cents at $3.15-1/2 per bushel.
Commodity and equity markets fell as a US-Chinese spat about the origins of the coronavirus outbreak worsened.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported on Monday that private exporters sold 115,800 metric tonnes of US corn for delivery to unknown destinations in the 2019-2020 marketing year.
The US Department of Agriculture reported export inspections of US corn in the latest week at 1,217,218 tonnes, above trade expectations for 850,000 to 1,100,000 tonnes.
Tyson Foods Inc expects to continue idling meat plants and slowing production because of the new coronavirus, the company said on Monday, signaling more disruptions to the US food supply.
There were 199 deliveries against the CBOT May corn futures contract.
Favorable planting weather in the US Corn Belt added to bearish sentiment, with some analysts expecting farmers to be aggressively trying to plant their fields early this year.
The USDA weekly crop progress report - set to be published Monday afternoon - should show that farmers were able to plant 48% of their intended corn acres as of Sunday, according to the average estimate in a survey of 12 analysts on Monday. Trade estimates for the week ended May 3 ranged from 42% to 58%.
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