Corn futures showed slight gains on Thursday. In Chicago, the December contract rose by 2.75 US cents to 419.75 US cents/bushel. September was also firmer and rose to 399.00 US cents/bushel, an increase of 1.75 US cents. Traders repositioned themselves ahead of the highly anticipated USDA report on Friday.
On the export side, a volume of 539,900 tons was reported for the week ending September 4. Mexico secured the largest share with 256,500 tons, followed by Japan with 143,700 tons. In addition, 1.17 million tons were carried over from the old marketing year into the new season. At 22.601 million tons, US corn sales in 2025/26 are off to a stronger start than ever before.
Brazil attracted international attention: the national agricultural authority CONAB raised its harvest estimate for the new season by 2.67 million tons to 139.67 million tons. This tends to put pressure on the global market, even if US traders are focusing on tomorrow's USDA figures for the time being.
Corn on Euronext for November rose only slightly by €0.75 to €185.50/t.
