Corn Rises to Over 1-Month High

Corn futures climbed to about $4.30 per bushel, touching September highs amid stronger demand and constrained supply. On the demand side, weekly US export inspections remain robust, keeping near-term shipments elevated and reducing available physical corn, while ethanol production and exports remain high enough to keep domestic corn churn elevated. On the supply front, global inventories are thin once China’s strategic stockpile are set aside, leaving the world with one of the smallest stocks-to-use cushions in decades and little room for surprise. That structural tightness is compounded by worsening South American weather, where dryness in central Brazil and parts of Argentina threatens safrinha plantings and the second-crop flows that normally relieve next year’s balance. Finally, recent interruptions to official US data releases have raised the market’s sensitivity to physical shipment and weather signals, amplifying price reactions to confirmed crop and flow updates.