Chicago Board of Trade corn futures slid 2.2% to their lowest since September 2016 on Wednesday on expectations that demand for ethanol will crater as oil prices fall due to the coronavirus pandemic, traders said.
The cash market for corn continued to erode as grain dealers cut their basis in the face of weakened competition from ethanol plants, which will not need as much corn in the coming months if production of the alternative fuel falls.
On a continuous basis, the most-active CBOT corn futures contract hit its lowest since Sept. 30 2016 during Wednesday's trading session, bottoming out at $3.32 a bushel.
The benchmark May corn futures contract briefly firmed during overnight trading but hit resistance at the low end of its 20-day Bollinger range.
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