Chicago Board of Trade July corn futures settled down 5 cents at $3.66-3/4 per bushel Wednesday on forecasts for better Midwest planting weather and news that the White House is considering a withdrawal from the North American Free Trade Agreement, analysts said. Updated midday weather forecasts looked drier for the Midwest in early May, easing concerns about planting delays that had lifted futures this week.

A senior Trump administration official said a draft executive order to withdraw the United States from NAFTA, a US, Mexico and Canada trade pact, is under consideration. The news raised concern about US corn exports to Mexico, a top buyer of the grain, at a time of burdensome US supplies. Trade estimates for weekly corn export sales, which will be released on Thursday morning by the US Department of Agriculture, ranged from 700,000 to 900,000 tonnes, in line with a week ago. The US Energy Information Administration reported production of corn-based ethanol in the latest week fell to 987,000 barrels per day, while stocks rose to 23.27 million barrels.

Copyright Reuters, 2017