AGRICULTURE
U.S. corn output surges
U.S. corn production is rebounding the most in two decades as farms recover from last year’s drought-plagued harvest. Hedge funds are bearish on prices for the first time since 2010.
Output this year will jump 30 percent to a record 13.983 billion bushels, according to the average of 20 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. That will add enough grain to supply the 28-nation European Union and Japan for a year and more than double U.S. inventories before the harvest in 2014. Futures will drop 9 percent to $4.75 a bushel in three months, the lowest since October 2010, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates.
Farmers planted the most acres since 1936 this season as some Midwest fields got three times their normal rainfall, including a record soaking in Iowa, the top growing state. Corn tumbled 18 percent from the peak during last year’s drought, reducing costs for buyers including Archer Daniels Midland Co.
— Bloomberg News