CBOT corn futures rise on slow pace of US planting

CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) corn futures rose on Tuesday to revisit last week's three-year highs, after the US Department of Agriculture said US planting was well behind the average pace for this time of year following repeated rainfall.

* CBOT July corn settled the day up 1 cent at $4.25-1/4 a bushel. Earlier in the day, the contract climbed as high as $4.36 a bushel.

* The rally in corn, however, was being tempered somewhat by what traders heard from farmers in north-central Iowa, Minnesota and parts of South Dakota, who are still intending to plant more corn, said Karl Setzer, a commodity market adviser at Agrivisor.

* Archer Daniels Midland Co and other grain traders are selling Brazilian corn to Smithfield Foods Inc in the United States, where wet weather has reduced plantings, said two sources with knowledge of the matter.

* Heavy rain continued to plague US farmers last week, especially in the corn belt, as they struggle to complete their sowings in waterlogged fields.

* Widespread thunderstorms and rain showers were expected for much of the Midwest Corn Belt on Tuesday, with storm systems slowly shifting to the south and east over the next several days, according to meteorologists.

* "The scattered nature of the storms in northern and some central areas should also allow some areas to be missed, allowing a broader window for drying soils," Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist for INTL FCStone, wrote in a client note on Tuesday. "This will allow further progress this week toward getting the 2019 corn crop in the ground, along with some soybeans."

* US Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday there was "not much support" from the Republican party for the United States to institute tariffs on Mexico - a leading buyer of US corn - and that he hoped the tariffs can be avoided through talks with the Mexico delegation.