The July corn contract traded on Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Corn closed this Monday (18) with a significant increase of 21.25 points and 4.66%, quoted at US$ cents 477.00/bushel. The September contract jumped 19.25 points and 4.16%, to US$ cents 482.25/bushel. In this trading session, corn prices followed the optimism of the grain market, after the White House announced that China will buy at least US$ 17 billion in agricultural products each year until 2028. Although the Asian country is not a direct importer of US corn – as it is of soybeans –, the negotiations with Beijing also include the resumption of poultry imports and the rehabilitation of more than 400 meat processing plants to export to the Chinese market, which may indirectly increase the demand for corn. The weakening of the dollar abroad – with the DXY falling 0.15% near the close of trading on the CBOT – and the almost 3% increase in oil prices on the international market also supported corn prices, a factor that increases the competitiveness of US ethanol produced from corn. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced earlier that US corn shipments totaled 1.379 million tons in the week ending May 14, a volume 19.1% lower than the previous week and 21.6% below the amount shipped in the same period last year. The amount was within market expectations, which ranged from 1.150 to 1.750 million tons. Shortly, the USDA will release the updated weekly report with the stages and conditions of US crops. In its daily weather bulletin, the USDA reported that heavy rain and locally severe storms are extending into the southwestern Corn Belt from the upper Great Lakes region, slowing the pace of fieldwork. "Last night, storms spawned several tornadoes in northwest Iowa and surrounding areas. Meanwhile, heavy rainfall is causing flash flooding in the lower Missouri Valley, especially in northern and central Missouri," the USDA stated. Also on the radar are the slowdown in the 2025/26 corn harvest in Argentina – given the prioritization of soybean crops – and the final development of the second corn crop in Brazil, which accounts for more than 80% of Brazil's corn supply.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.