(Agriculture.com) – U.S. corn and soybean futures ended mostly higher on Friday, as traders continued to worry that a Midwest drought will cut yields for the two crops.
Forecasts call for temperatures to heat up over the weekend and early next week, with only scattered rains expected in that period. With little sign of drought relief in sight, traders continued to push futures prices higher to account for lower harvest expectations.
“In terms of erasing this incredible dry spell, I don’t see any indications of it at all,” said Mike Palmerino, a meteorologist at Telvent DTN.
“You have not broken the drought. The dryness in the Midwest continues to expand, it’s not shrinking,” and it is encroaching on Iowa and Minnesota, which didn’t face much dryness just a few weeks ago, he said. Crop conditions in Minnesota have been markedly better than in the rest of the Corn Belt so far.
Temperatures could reach the upper 90s and low 100s in the next seven days in parched areas including Indiana, Illinois and southern and eastern Iowa, Mr. Palmerino said.
Chicago Board of Trade July corn futures, which were thinly traded and expired Friday, settled down 15 1/2 cents or 2.0% at $7.55 3/4 a bushel. Other corn contracts rose, with September corn up 9 1/4 cents or 1.3% at $7.40 1/2 a bushel.
