Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) corn futures declined on Wednesday on concerns about weak demand from ethanol makers and spillover pressure from falling soyabean prices, traders said. CBOT March corn settled down 3-3/4 cents at $3.81-3/4 per bushel in the steepest percentage drop in a month.
Traders are watching for signs of demand from China after the country negotiated a 90-day trade war truce with the United States which could include China's purchases of US corn and other agricultural products. Some ethanol makers have slowed output due to poor profit, threatening corn demand from an industry that consumes about a third of the US harvest. Government data showed output at an average of 1.046 million barrels per day last week, unchanged from the previous week. The USDA is expected to report last week's old-crop US corn export sales at 1.8 million to 2.3 million tonnes and new-crop sales of 500,000 to 600,000 tonnes, according to analysts polled ahead of the weekly report. The Federal Reserve raised US interest rates on Wednesday, as expected, but forecast fewer rate hikes next year and signaled its tightening cycle is nearing an end in the face of financial market volatility and slowing global growth.