Corn backs off two-week high after USDA data

Corn futures fell over two percent in American trade away from September 11 highs, on track for weekly and monthly losses, while the dollar index hit September 10 highs. 

As of 07:58 GMT, corn futures due in December tumbled 2.33% to $3.5625, away from two-week highs, while the dollar index rose 0.30% to 95.18 away from July 9 lows. 

USDA Reports Sales

The US Department of Agriculture reported corn sales at 1.71 million tonnes in the week ending September 20, compared to a 1.38 million in the previous week. 

Mexico came at the top with 62.3 thousand tonnes, followed by Guatemala at 161.4 thousand tonnes, then Japan and Egypt at 124.5 thousand and 110.5 thousand respectively. 

Earlier this month, the USDA raised forecasts for corn output to 14.827 million tonnes bushels, or 181.3 per bushel, from 14.586 million bushels, or 178.4 per bushel in the August report. 

The USDA expects corn inventories in the marketing year 2018-2019 to reach 1.684 billion bushels, up from 1.636 billion in previous forecasts. 

US Data 

Earlier US data showed personal spending rose 0.3% as expected, slowing down from 0.4% in July.

Personal income rose 0.3% with no change, missing estimates of 0.4%. 

The Chicago PMI is receded to 60.4 from 63.6 in August, missing estimates of 62.3, while the final reading for UoM consumer sentiment survey is estimated at 100.5, up from 96.2 in August. 

University of Michigan released its revised reading for the US consumer sentiment survey, showing a a dip to 100.1 from 100.8 in the preliminary reading, while missing estimates of 100.5, and compared to 96.2 in August. 

The Federal Open Market Committee voted at the September 25-26 meeting to increase overnight interest rates by 25 basis points for the third time this year to just below 2.25%, as expected by analysts. 

The Federal Reserve has been gradually increasing rates since late 2015 from near zero levels as the economy continued to expand and inflation picked up pace.