Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were weak early on Wednesday on good planting weather in the United States, traders said. At 10:28 am CDT (1528 GMT), CBOT corn was down 2-1/2 cents per bushel to up 1-1/4, with May down 1-3/4 at $3.52 per bushel. July was down 1-1/4 at $3.62-1/4 and new-crop December was down 2-1/2 at $3.64.
The drier and warmer weather in the US Midwest will give corn seedings a big boost, leading to the potential for a bigger corn crop this year, a bearish price factor.
The USDA on Friday will release its May supply/demand report and an average of analysts' estimates pegged the new-crop (2007/08) US corn ending stocks at 1.023 billion bushels, below the current USDA outlook for the old-crop (2006/07) ending stocks at 876 million bushels. Oat futures were down 1/2 to 2-1/2 cents per bushel, with July down 1/2 at $2.54-1/2 per bushel.