“A small 3 1/2 cent trading range in December corn today and prices ended slightly lower. Clearly, there was little new news to move the markets as traders await the USDA update on Friday. Analysts are looking for a minor reduction in yields and a small cut to ending stocks. There is no question a large crop is out there but the extent of the disease pressure, specifically tar spot and southern rust, is what traders will be looking to gauge from the USDA numbers. USDA does have a historic tendency to overstate yields in August compared to the final yields in January. Dry and warm conditions are on the way across the central and eastern Midwest over the next 2 weeks which will support early harvest efforts but could create transportation problems on the Mississippi River as water levels drop. Ukraine corn production was raised by APK-Inform to 30.26mmt but that is below USDA at 32mmt. EU imports of corn through September 7 were 2.09 million tons, down from 4.12 at this time last year. Demand to Asian countries and Mexico has been very good,” according to The Hightower Report.