As wheat has melted down and corn export sales remain dismal, corn futures appear to have convincingly broken out to the downside after trading in a 30-cent range in the past 16 days. The next target for March appears to be the open chart gap at $6.38 with solid support just under that.
Energy price fluctuations are of great interest to agricultural producers, but the present bearishness for international crude oil doesn t seem to be carrying over to domestic fuel.
In a region nicknamed for its resemblance to the Nile, low water levels have bottlenecked an important route for grain shipments and damaged the competitiveness of local cash grain markets.
Everything that moves in a barge relies on the Mississippi River to keep commerce moving. Given the longstanding drought, that has become a tall order to fill.