WASDE, crop reports, planting intention reports, export inspections, and weather during planting, silking, and harvest. Spot market prices, weather in competing countries or heavy users (Australia, South America have been in the news lately), economic conditions in consumer countries (China), tax breaks for corn-based ethanol in the US, tariffs against sugar-based ethanol, prices of competitive-for-acreage crops, and many more issues are secondary factors. USDA is the best place to start. CBOT publishes a daily "Commodity News for Tomorrow" report that has a lot of the fundamental news. CBOT also runs an RSS 3x per day news feed for each grain. www.dtnag.com might also have what some of what you're looking for. I hope that helps.
All helpful info thanks. Do you know when the USDA 2006/2007 "marketing year" starts and ends? thanks
This time of year weather if probably one of the biggest factors. Another big factor is going to be projected yields and the size of the carry-over. The new crop is off to a fairly good start but demand remains high.
Anybody starting to get a little worried about the root depth of these plants. The seed goes into the ground wet and now we have lots of rainfall over the corn belt. If we get even some sort of a drought this year these plants could be doomed.
Corn is pretty tough stuff. It is a member of the grass family. Newer hybrids are somewhat drought resistant. As far as rain goes it is either too much or not enough. Rarely does it come in just the right amounts. While it is good to keep abreast of the news and weather, in the long run just follow price.
I am technically oriented, so that's what I tend to do, but I also realize that following price with TA is like drivng by looking in the rearview mirror. Following the fundies like crop reports, and following the weather can help one anticipate what the longer term trend will likely do better than TA alone.
Were there any particular reasons for that drive up in the corn yesterday, the soybeans got lifted strongly in that first hour of the pit open with barely a pause. I thought with the palm oil off 1.5% again they might drift lower but it was following the corn hand in hand The cbot report seemed to side with further selling but it wasn't to be. I thought the techs looked bullish but sided with the fundamentals unfortunately. Lesson 1 paid for!
Corn is still in a trading range (check daily chart). What reasons do you want for going up or down within a range? Call it random move, or bounce off support.