Corn rises for third session after USDA data

Corn futures rose over one percent in American trade away from July 16 lows, heading for weekly gains following earlier data from the US, the world's largest corn producer and exporter. 

As of 07:59 GMT, corn futures due in December rose 1.35% to $3.5725, marking September 12 highs ,while the dollar index edged up 0.30% to 94.2 away from ten-week lows. 

USDA Reports Sales, Forecasts 

The US Department of Agriculture reported corn sales due for delivery in the new marketing year starting October at 1.38 million tonnes in the week ending September 14, up sharply from 774.2 thousand in the previous week. 

Sales passed expectations of between 0.5 million and 1.2 million tonnes, with Mexico at the top of the buyers list at 344.6 thousand tonnes, followed by South Korea at 204.3 thousand, then Peru at 148.9 thousand.  

Earlier this month, the USDA 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.