Chicago Board of Trade corn futures wavered through a choppy day of trading on Wednesday, and ended narrowly up as traders wrestled with mixed signals ahead of two key US government crop reports. CBOT September corn settled the day up 1/2 cent at $3.61-3/4 a bushel, while new-crop December ended unchanged at $3.73-1/4.
Traders said there were some bullish signs that helped corn prices rise somewhat during the day: from White House statements indicating a potential easing-back of restrictions on Chinese investment in US high tech firms, to above-normal temperature forecasts across the US Corn Belt in the coming weeks when corn pollination is expected. "There's a growing sentiment in the trade that the crop can't be hurt. I'm not so sure if that's true," said Joe Vaclavik, president of Standard Grain. "The market has little weather premium priced into it right now, and these well-above normal temperatures we're going to see come into the Corn Belt could have a negative impact on crop production if the heat happens during pollination."
But traders said any hope of a stronger rally was pressured by wet weather forecasts across the US heartland - in the 6- to 15-day range - which acted as heavy overhead resistance for the futures market during mid-day trading. The US Energy Information Administration said weekly US output of corn-based ethanol rose to 1.07 million barrels per day, while stocks of the biofuel rose to 21.67 million barrels.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is scheduled to issue its weekly export sales report at 7:30 a.m. CDT (1230 GMT) on Thursday. Analysts surveyed by Reuters on average expected the USDA to report corn export sales at 800,000 to 1.4 million metric tonnes (old and new crop years combined). US Department of Agriculture's acreage and quarterly stocks reports are set to be released on Friday.
Analysts surveyed by Reuters on average expect the USDA to raise its estimates of US 2018 corn and soybean plantings from its March forecasts, and to report multi-year highs in US June 1 corn and soy stockpiles.