December Corn finished down 20 1/4 at 608 1/4, 20 off the high and 5 1/2 up from the low. September Corn closed down 20 1/4 at 589 1/4. This was 5 1/4 up from the low and 20 off the high.

Corn opened lower and fell sharply in early trade today. Prices firmed slightly during mid session, but eased late in the afternoon to finish near the lows of the day. The lower open met with another wave of selling by locals, commission houses and funds which took prices sharply lower into mid session. Traders credited the selling to another weekend of favorable crop weather and forecasts for more of the same this week. Long range forecasts are also moving closer to normal with the previously forecast high pressure ridge no longer expected to move into the western corn belt. This is happening as the corn crop moves through silking and tasseling stages to start the critical pollination period. The USDA will release its weekly Crop Conditions Report this afternoon and traders expected it to shows an improvement of 1-2% in the good-to-excellent category. Weekly export inspections for corn came in at 29.843 million bushels. As of July 17, cumulative corn export inspections for the 07-08 marketing year have reached 85.4% of the USDA forecast versus a 5 year average of 82.9%. Inspections of 57.0 million bushels are needed each week to reach the USDA forecast. Cash traders say that farmer selling remains light on the break in futures and that basis levels are mostly steady.

September Rice finished down 0.19 at 17.61, 0.06 off the high and equal to the low.