Chicago Board of Trade corn futures rallied from contract lows on Tuesday after the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a quarterly report that grain stocks were tighter than many traders had expected.
The tighter stocks, an indication of strong demand, more than offset pressure from a larger-than-anticipated U.S. corn plantings estimate from the USDA, analysts said.
The USDA said June 1 corn stocks fell to 5.295 billion bushels, below the average analyst estimate of 5.408 billion.
In its annual acreage report, the USDA said U.S. farmers had planted 95.343 million acres of corn this year, down from 98.788 million in 2025 but still the fourth largest planted area since 1944. Analysts polled by Reuters ahead of the report had, on average, expected plantings at 94.992 million acres.
Hot weather across the U.S. Midwest this week was expected to stress the corn crop before easing later this week, forecasters said.
CBOT September corn futures (CU26) hit a contract low of $4.06-1/4 a bushel early on Tuesday but ended the day 6-1/2 cents higher at $4.16-3/4 a bushel. New-crop December corn (CZ26) posted a life-of contract low of $4.25-3/4 a bushel before rebounding to settle at $4.36 a bushel, up 6 cents.
March, May and July 2027 contracts, and the March 2028 contract also posted contract lows before closing higher.