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Despite neutral CBOT close, WASDE report “bad for corn”

An ag economist says despite a neutral response on the Chicago Board of Trade, Tuesday’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand report was bad for corn prices.

Todd Hubbs with the University of Illinois tells Brownfield the USDA continues to lower feed and residual use, down 75 million bushels in its latest estimate.

“And we’ve seen ethanol grind growth slow considerably this year, and they lowered that 50 million bushels. (USDA also) lowered exports 75 million bushels.”

Corn ending stocks are now seen at more than two billion bushels, up 200 million from March.

He says short covering ahead of the report is probably why futures closed steady Tuesday.

“I think a lot of the people who follow the data closely maybe saw this thing coming, (but) maybe not to that magnitude. I think as we move through the rest of this week you might see a little bit of weakness in corn prices.”

Hubbs says there are a lot of short positions in the corn market right now.

May corn was unchanged at $3.60 Tuesday.  The July and September contracts were also steady.