Corn futures rise nearly one percent as dollar slips

Corn futures fell nearly one percent in American trade as the dollar index moved farther away from the lowest since late August for the fourth session out of five, following a spate of data from the US, the world's largest corn producer and exporter, while the Federal Open Market Committee's policy meeting draws to an end in Washington. 

As of 06:19 GMT, corn futures due on December 15 rose 0.65% to $3.5050 from the opening of $3.4825, while the dollar index shed 0.10% to 91.70 from the opening of 91.79. 

Earlier US data showed existing home sales slid 1.7% in August to an annualized 5.35 million units, compared to July's 1.3% drop to 5.44M, while analysts expected a 0.2% increase to 5.46M. 

Investors look forward to policy decisions by Federal Open Market Committee members in this week's periodic meeting, at which policymakers are expected to unveil their three-year forecasts for inflation, growth, unemployment, and interest rates. 

Fed policymakers are expected to start the process of trimming down the Federal Reserve's $4.2 trillion holdings of treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities, while maintaining overnight interest rates at between 1% and 1.25%. 

Otherwise, the US Department of Agriculture's report for the grain harvest season starting this September showed that just 7% from the corn harvest as been taken up until last Sunday in this marketing year, which is below the five year average of 11%. 

The USDA checked about 676.8 thousand metric tonnes of corn that is ready for export in the week ending September 14, which was above the previous week of 676.2 thousand, while less than half the amount of the same period in 2016 at 1.3 million. 

On the same note, last week, the US Department of Agriculture reported a rise in US corn inventories in the agriculture year of 2017/2018 to 2.335 billion bushels, compared to previous official forecasts at 2.273 billion, and market expectations at 2.18 billion. 

Similarly, the USDA raised corn productivity forecasts by 0.4 bushel to 169.9 bushels per donam, compared to previous forecasts of 168.2 bushels, with the department now expecting total corn production this year to amount to 14.184 billion bushels, up from 14.153 billion in the previous forecasts. 

The upgrade in productivity forecasts weighed on prices, noting that the USDA report said that grain projections for the current month don't reflect the impact of the floods and Hurricanes that hit the US recently, adding that the Department will make survey in the affected areas to include the damages in the October report.