Corn reverses course and ends the day lower on the Chicago Board of Trade.

The July corn contract traded on Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) The corn futures contract closed this Wednesday (24) with a moderate drop of 4.00 points and 0.98%, quoted at US$ cents 405.75/bushel; the September contract fell 3.50 points and 0.84%, to US$ cents 414.25/bushel. For the week, futures accumulated partial losses of 2.81% and 2.59%, respectively. After starting the trading session in positive territory, cereal prices ended up losing strength again, pressured by the good pace of development of the 2026/27 crop in the Corn Belt and by the drop of more than 4% in oil on the international market, a factor that reduces the competitiveness of US ethanol produced from corn. A daily bulletin from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) indicates that, as summer crops enter the reproductive phase, temperatures and soil moisture levels remain mostly favorable. "Earlier today, rain showers and some storms were restricted to parts of the Great Lakes region," he says. The market awaits the release of the annual planted area report, which will be released next Tuesday (30). The expectation is that the USDA will indicate an area sown with corn even smaller than the 38.58 million hectares presented in the planting intentions report, which came out at the end of March. Of the total sown, 97% has already reached the emergence phase, a pace in line with the previous season and the average of the last five years. In addition, 5% of the crops are already in the silking phase, slightly ahead of the previous crop (4%) and the normal average (3%). As for conditions, 68% were classified as good/excellent in the week ending June 21 – the same percentage recorded in the previous week, but below the 70% of the last season. Of the remainder, 26% were rated as fair and 6% as poor/very poor. The DXY – an index that compares the strength of the dollar against major global currencies – traded higher throughout the day. Near the close of trading on the CBOT, the indicator was up 0.20%. Ongoing harvests in Brazil and Argentina remain on the radar, 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.