Corn futures dropped more than 3% to roughly $5.00 a bushel, the lowest level in five weeks, after the USDA reported US inventories significantly above market expectations. Corn stocks as of September 1 totaled 2.095 billion bushels, compared with trade estimates of 1.918 billion, underscoring a larger-than-expected supply cushion.
Market participants also weighed the pace of the US harvest amid forecasts for continued rainfall, which raised concerns that wet weather could slow fieldwork. As of Monday, farmers had harvested 18% of the corn crop, in line with the five-year average, according to the USDA.
The selloff was further pressured by broader weakness across grain markets. China omitted soybeans from a list of proposed tariff reductions on US agricultural goods, prompting traders to pare back positions and exerting additional downward pressure on corn through spillover effects. While corn was included in China’s proposed tariff cuts, the arrangement did not feature any new commitments to purchase US corn.
