Corn Futures Rebound as USDA Data Shows Strong Crop Progress

Corn futures closed higher on Monday after initially falling overnight. Contracts for Sep 26 Corn and nearby Cash rose by 8.5 cents and 9.75 cents, respectively. The weekly Crop Progress report showed 90% of the US corn crop silking by August 2, with 43% in the dough stage, 5 percentage points ahead of normal.

The Brugler500 index fell 5 points to 356. Grain Crushing data from Monday revealed that 466.71 million bushels (mbu) of corn were used for ethanol production in June, down 1.5% from last month and 4.43% larger year-over-year. Marketing year production is now 76 mbu above last year at 4.595 billion bushels.

The Export Inspections report showed corn shipments of 1.885 million metric tons (MMT) in the week of July 30, up 22.92% from the previous week and 45.44% above the same week last year. Mexico was the largest destination at 490,997 MT.