Corn steadies after reaching decade high

Chicago corn futures edged lower on Tuesday, consolidating below a decade high reached earlier, as traders assessed risks to global supply from the war in Ukraine and a slow start to planting in the US, reports Reuters.
Wheat also turned lower while soybeans gave up most of their gains as weakness in wider financial markets, where the focus was on expected US interest rate hikes, countered fundamental support for grains.
The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 0.2 per cent at $8.05-3/4 a bushel, after earlier reaching its highest since September 2012 at $8.14.
US corn planting was 4 per cent complete as of Sunday, below the five-year average of 6 per cent, the US Department of Agriculture said in a report issued after CBOT grain markets closed on Monday, and the 5 per cent forecast in a Reuters poll of analysts.
The market is particularly sensitive to any potential setback in the US corn crop as Russia's invasion of Ukraine has stalled massive Ukrainian corn exports. Cool, wet weather has hampered early field work in the US Midwest.