Markets

CBOT corn ends up as dryness trims S. America crop

Published Updated

* "It's a little wetter in the one to five day for Brazil but really no big changes today. They have too much rain in the northeast and too little in the south. Argentina is still dry, temperatures in the upper 90s F and that trend continues," said Don Keeney, MDA EarthSat Weather (Cropcast)

* Argentina is the second largest global corn exporter after the United States and Brazil is the world's fourth largest corn producer with most of Brazil's crop consumed domestically.

* Crop experts including crop scout Michael Cordonnier are beginning to trim their forecasts for South American crop production and have said more cuts may be necessary if relief from the dryness does not come soon.

* Commodity Weather Group said Argentine corn yields will continue to slip in the next 10 days. A slightly wetter forecast for Argentina in the 11-15 day outlook but confidence in that forecast is low, CWG said.

* March broke resistance at its 50 day moving average on Tuesday and remained above that level of $6.27-1/2 which is now key support. The nine-day RSI was in overbought territory at 77.

Copyright Reuters, 2011