The September corn contract traded on Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) The futures contract closed this Tuesday (28) with a strong increase of 6.75 points and 1.49%, quoted at US$ cents 458.50/bushel; the December contract advanced 6.50 points and 1.37%, to US$ cents 480.50/bushel. After falling sharply the previous day, cereal prices regained ground in this trading session, supported by the worsening conditions of US crops in the last week. A survey conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) up to last Sunday (26) shows that 63% of the areas are classified as good/excellent, down 4 pp compared to the previous week and lower than the 73% recorded at the same time in 2025. Of the remainder, 25% were rated as fair and 12% as poor/very poor. Vegetative development continues at an accelerated pace: 78% of the planted area has reached the silking stage, an increase of 19 percentage points compared to the previous week. This figure is above the 73% recorded in the same period of 2025 and also surpasses the average of the last five years (74%). Furthermore, 24% of the crops have entered the silking stage, compared to 13% the previous week. This percentage is slightly below that observed in the same period last year (25%), but exceeds the multi-year average (22%). Strong international demand also supported prices. In the morning, the USDA reported a single sale of 197,272 thousand tons of corn to an unknown destination, with delivery scheduled for the 2026/27 marketing year. However, further gains were limited by the more than 4% drop in WTI crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), a factor that reduces the competitiveness of US corn-based ethanol. On the radar: the winter crop harvest in the Center-South of Brazil and the progress of work in Argentina.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.