Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade fell early on Tuesday as a good start to this year's growing season and mostly favourable Midwest crop weather spurred fund long liquidation, traders said.
The sell-off in gold added to the weakness. With the increased participation by index-type funds in commodities, they tend to move in tandem. July corn was down 4-1/4 cents at $2.48-3/4 per bushel by 10:40 am CDT (1540 GMT). The back months were down 2-3/4 to 4-1/2 cents. Commodity funds sold 5,500 contracts by mid-morning, traders said.