The July corn contract traded on Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) The futures contract closed this Friday (26) down 2.00 points and 0.48%, quoted at US$ cents 412.75/bushel; the September contract fell 2.50 points and 0.59%, to US$ cents 421.75/bushel. For the week, futures accumulated losses of 1.14% and 0.82%, respectively. In this trading session, domestic prices were pressured by the almost 4% drop in oil on the international market – a factor that reduces the competitiveness of US ethanol produced from corn – and by the good development of the 2026/27 crop in the Corn Belt. A survey conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) up to last Sunday (21) shows that the first crops have already reached the silking stage, at a faster pace than observed in the same period of the last season. Regarding crop conditions, 68% of the fields were classified as good/excellent – the same percentage recorded the previous week and slightly below the 70% of last season. Of the remainder, 26% were rated as fair and 6% as poor/very poor. The Drought Monitor, released yesterday by the USDA, indicates that areas experiencing drought decreased last week to 22% of the total. Even so, the level remains above the 16% observed during the same period last year. As for the weather forecast, the USDA's daily bulletin indicates that rainfall is occurring in approximately the entire southwestern half of the Corn Belt, while cool and dry weather continues to prevail in the Great Lakes region. "On June 21, before the most recent rains, soil moisture in the Midwest was generally adequate, although some states showed elevated levels of topsoil moisture: 43% above normal in Illinois, 36% in Missouri, 27% in Indiana, 26% in Michigan, and 22% in Iowa," states the USDA. Next Tuesday (30), the USDA will publish the annual planted area report and quarterly stocks as of June 1. On the radar are the ongoing harvests in Brazil and Argentina, which should increase the competitiveness of these two countries in the international market in the coming months.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.