Chicago Board of Trade corn futures were expected to open 3 to 5 cents per bushel higher Thursday on a weaker dollar and gains in equities on optimism for a resolution soon to the Greek debt crisis. Globex overnight trend for corn was up 3-3/4 cents to up 5-3/4 cents per bushel.
The euro climbed on Thursday and the dollar fell as optimism grew that Greece would secure enough private sector take-up for a critical bond swap which boosted demand for riskier assets. USDA's weekly export sales report showed net export sales of US corn during the week ended last Thursday at 505,700 tonnes, near the low end of a range of estimates for 500,000 to 700,000 tonnes.
The Buenos Aires Grains Exchange on Thursday revised down its estimate for Argentina's 2011/12 corn harvest to 20.8 million tonnes from a previous forecast of 21.3 million tonnes due to the impact of a drought. Beijing and the influential US Department of Agriculture may have overstated China's corn crop by as much as 14 percent, pointing to higher imports from the world's second-largest consumer of the grain that could squeeze already tightening global supplies.
Position-squaring was noted ahead of the release at 7:30 am CST (1330 GMT) on Friday of USDA's March supply/demand and crop production reports. US and global grain and soybean stocks are expected to slip during the next 6 months, giving a lift to prices, before big sowings in the United States this spring build stocks and pressure prices, assuming normal weather.
Hot and dry weather should prompt the USDA to lower its forecasts of the corn and soybean crops in South America, moves that would signal increased export demand for US supplies, analysts said. Reuters poll of analysts expect USDA's March supply/demand and crop production reports on Friday to show declining US and global grain and soy ending stocks and declining production of corn and soy in South America.