Late Tuesday, commodity brokerage firm FC Stone forecast this year's crop at 11.079 billion bushels. That's above the US Agriculture Department's outlook in October for 10.857 billion. USDA will release its November crop production report on November 10.
CBOT corn closed unchanged to 1-1/4 cents per bushel lower, with December down 3/4 at $1.96. December fell to a session low of $1.95-3/4, near its contract low of $1.95-1/2 that was set in the overnight e-cbot electronic trading session.
Volume was moderate estimated at 80,826 futures and 19,506 options.
Traders said a lack of bullish input from the export sector and ongoing concerns about the potential impact of bird flu on global feed usage also were bearish for corn futures prices.
Export action overnight included news South Korea issued a tender to buy 142,000 tonnes of corn and Israel set a tender to buy 20,000 to 25,000 tonnes of corn from Europe.
Crop weather for harvesting the US corn crop was becoming less of a factor because harvest is virtually complete. Meteorlogix weather service on Wednesday said wet weather may slow harvest in the eastern Midwest for a couple of days.
The CBOT late Tuesday trimmed the margin to trade corn futures, effective with the Wednesday night trading session. The initial margin was cut to $405 from the previous $506.
Cash basis bids for corn in the Midwest on Wednesday were steady to firm and farmer selling remained slow.
Technical support in the December contract was at $1.95 per bushel and resistance was at $1.99.
Oat futures closed steady to 1-1/2 cents per bushel higher, with December up 1-1/4 at $1.62 per bushel. Volume was light estimated at 600 futures and 32 options.