Corn climbs for first session in three, dollar hits seven-week low

Corn futures rose nearly one percent in American trade away from July 16 lows, as the dollar index hit July 31 lows, following earlier data from the Us, the world's largest corn producer and exporter. 

As of 07:22 GMT, corn futures due in December rose 0.73% to $3.4575, while the dollar index slipped 0.11% to 94.53 against a basket of major rivals. 

USDA Reports Output, Inventory Forecasts

Last week, the US Department of Agriculture 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. 

Other less pertaining US data showed housing starts surged 9.2% to an annualized 1.282 million units in August, compared to a 0.3% dip in July to 1.174 million, beating estimates of a 5.7% increase. 

Conversely, building permits fell 5.7% last month to 1.229 million, compared to a 0.9% increase in July to 1.303 million, while analysts expected a 0.5% increase to 1.310 million, as the current account deficit shrank to $101 billion from $122 billion in the first quarter.