"My sympathies to your subscriber who recently asked about corn. Sympathies because it appears that he has got himself entangled with a truly dysfunctional market. The corn basis has been posting record high levels for months, and now it is screaming that we appear to be on the verge of running out. You would never know it looking at a chart of July corn. The Illinois river stations, on which the contract is based, are bidding up to 80 over July futures."

John Macintosh's full assessment is in this PDF.

David Fuller's view I can only assume that the USDA and CBOT are under political pressure to dampen inflationary expectations in these markets. That may be understandable on the grounds that agricultural markets were never intended to be asset classes. However, it risks being a bureaucratic overkill if deterring speculators impedes the normal hedging activities of producers and consumers in these markets.

Meanwhile, expiring July corn regained most of Friday's losses and spreads narrowed on hot weather concerns.