Corn Prices Rebound Amid Rain Forecast and Ethanol Production Boost
Corn prices are experiencing a morning bounce on Thursday, rising by 1 to 2 cents. However, this upward trend is not enough to make up for the losses seen in Tuesday's session, when contracts closed down 2 to 9 ½ cents. The nearbys led the decline, while open interest increased by 15,562 contracts, indicating some new short interest.
The weekly Petroleum Status Report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed ethanol production increasing by another 39,000 barrels per day in the week of July 24th. This brought the total to 1.133 million barrels per day, the second largest weekly total on record. Stock levels also rose by 245,000 barrels to 24.726 million barrels.
The weather forecast for the next seven days suggests that much of eastern Nebraska and the Dakotas will receive 1 to 2 inches of rain, which could have a positive impact on corn yields. The upcoming release of Export Sales data on Thursday is also expected to provide insight into market trends. Traders are looking for old crop corn sales in the range of 300,000 to 600,000 MT.