Corn Price Drops Despite Rating Cut, Futures Contracts Close Higher
The price of corn has dropped by 1 to 2 cents on Tuesday morning despite a recent rating cut. Futures contracts closed higher, with most months seeing an increase of 6 to 8 ½ cents. Open interest decreased by 6,336 contracts, indicating some short covering.
According to the weekly Crop Progress report, 90% of the US corn crop has silked by August 2, which is 5 percentage points ahead of normal. Additionally, 43% of the crop is in the dough stage, and 6% is dented. The US condition ratings have slipped another 2%, with 61% of the corn crop rated as good to excellent.
The Grain Crushing data from Monday showed that 466.71 million bushels (mbu) of corn were used for ethanol production in June, which is down 1.5% from last month and 4.43% larger year-over-year to a record June total.
Monday's Export Inspections report revealed that corn shipments of 1.885 million metric tons (MTT) were made in the week of July 30, which is up 22.92% from the previous week and 45.44% above the same week last year. Mexico was the largest recipient of these shipments at 490,997 MT.
The marketing year total for corn exports has now surpassed 77.27 MMT (3.04 billion bushels), which is a 25.35% increase from the same period last year with only one month left in the marketing year.