Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were lower early on Friday, setting new contract lows as abundant stocks of feed grains and concerns that bird flu may expand and cut in to feed consumption weighed on prices, traders said.
Selling pressure spilled over from a steep slide in soybean futures, they said, but the big anchor on corn futures continues to be the harvest this year of the second largest crop in US history.
At 10:18 am CST (1618 GMT), CBOT corn was unchanged to 1-1/4 cents per bushel lower, with December down 3/4 at $1.91-1/2 per bushel. March was down 1 at $2.05-1/2 per bushel. The new contract low for March is $2.05-1/4 per bushel, below the previous low of $2.05-1/2.