(Businessweek) – Corn tumbled for a second day to the lowest in two weeks as cooler weather boosts U.S. crop prospects and amid signs of decreasing demand for supplies from the world’s biggest grower.
The Midwest is expected to remain cool in the next two weeks, with temperatures below the long-term average, Commodity Weather Group wrote in a report today. No significant hot weather is forecast for the Midwest in the next 10 days, favoring corn and soybeans, DTN said in a report yesterday.
“The absence of extreme heat for the U.S. Midwest is providing a degree of comfort around production prospects,”Luke Mathews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), wrote in a report today.
Corn for December delivery tumbled 1.5 percent to $4.9075 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade by 5 a.m., falling to the lowest level since July 8. Trading volume was 15 percent above the 100-day average for the time of day.
Export inspections of corn dropped 46 percent in the week ended July 18 from a week earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said yesterday.
About 63 percent of U.S. corn was rated good-to-excellent as of July 21, down from 66 percent the previous week and compared with 26 percent a year earlier, the USDA wrote in its weekly crop conditions report yesterday.
“The market seems eager to push this report aside and instead trade weather and the growing potential for a record crop as the risk window closes and pollination continues,”Jaime Nolan-Miralles, a commodity risk manager at INTL FCStone Inc. in Dublin, wrote in an e-mailed note to clients.
Soybeans for November delivery slipped less than 0.1 percent to $12.8825 a bushel. Wheat for delivery in September fell 0.9 percent to $6.5375 a bushel in Chicago, while milling wheat for November delivery traded on NYSE Liffe in Paris fell 0.4 percent to 191.75 euros ($252.65) a metric ton.
“Dryness across much of Europe is helping wheat, barley and rapeseed harvest activity to progress nicely,” Nolan-Miralles wrote. “Both Southern and Central Europe until now has been delivering a sterling performance versus expectations, with accompanying positive yield results.”
