Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade jumped to a 1-week high on Wednesday amid weather worries and hopes for a resumption soon of corn shipments to Japan, traders said. Corn was up 1/2 to 4 cents per bushel. July was up 4 at $2.23 per bushel. Iowa Grain and FIMAT Futures each bought 300 July, pit sources said. Traders said corn futures were driven by outlooks for hotter and drier weather next week in the US Midwest crop region.
"The market is focusing on not a lot of rain for the next 10 days and it will be hotter, but not alarming," said Meteorlogix forecaster Joel Burgio.
Burgio said it would be mostly dry in the Midwest over the next five days and temperatures would be cooler than normal over the near term. But above normal temperatures were expected by late in the weekend and early next week, he said. Cash basis bids for corn in the Midwest late on Tuesday were steady amid modest farmer selling.
Technical support in the July contract was at $2.09-3/4 per bushel. Resistance at $2.22-1/2 was broken, driving the contract to a session high of $2.25. The July contract opened above its 200-day moving average of $2.22-1/4 per bushel.