Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) corn futures hit a six-week high on Wednesday on forecasts for worrisome rains in the Midwest crop belt that could signal further planting delays - but gave up most of their gains late in the session, traders said. Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) corn futures ended the day nearly flat, as funds wrestled with hedging their risks amid planting delays in the US Midwest, traders said.
CBOT July corn settled up 3/4 cent at $3.69-1/2 per bushel, after rallying as high as $3.80 a bushel in midday trading. Corn posted the biggest advance of the three commodities on a percentage basis earlier in the day, as forecasts called for rains to return to the US Corn Belt this weekend and next week, after a few dry days.
"Why did corn come back to (nearly) unchanged? July corn and Dec corn got into some big hedge-sell areas: $3.80 in July and the $4 area in December corn. And you met a wall of selling," said Terry Linn, an analyst with Linn & Associates, a Chicago brokerage. "This is a classic transfer of risk, where funds were covering their short positions (by buying futures) and the farmer was happy to sell it to them."