Corn falls 1% as dollar gains ground

Corn futures fell nearly one percent in American trade away from July 12 highs for the second session as the dollar index gained ground, following earlier data from the US, the world's largest corn producer and exporter. 

As of 07:58 GMT, corn futures due on May 15 fell 0.77% to $3.8875 from the opening of $3.9175, while the dollar index inched up 0.07% to 89.73 from the opening of 89.66. 

Earlier US data showed producer prices accelerated to 0.2% from 0.1% in January, missing expectations of 0.4%, while core prices slowed down to 0.2% as expected from 0.4% in January. 

Retail sales dipped 0.1% in February, same as January and missing expectations of a 0.3% rise, while core sales accelerated to 0.2% from 0.1%, also missing forecasts of 0.4%. 

The US Department of Agriculture reported corn sales of 1.86 million tonnes in the week ending early March, up 8% from the previous week, and 6% from the four-week average, with unknown buyers accounting for 385.9 thousand tonnes. 

Then Japan at 376.8 thousand tonnes, and Mexico at 366.2 thousand, Taiwan and Vietnam at 165.4 thousand and 134 thousand respectively, while Mexico cancelled a 10.2K deal, with total US corn sales since the start of the current marketing year amounting now to 70.3 million tonnes.