December 2026 corn futures were quoted at 538.25 US cents per bushel, equivalent to $5.3825, at 08:52:09 UTC (14:22:09 IST) on September 16. Yahoo Finance’s ZC=F series showed a 2.50-cent increase, or 0.47%, against its September 15 close of 535.75 cents.
Three ticks short of the reported high
The feed’s high was 539.00 cents and its low 534.00 cents. Corn stood 0.75 cent below the high and 4.25 cents above the low. With the standard contract’s quarter-cent minimum price increment, the gap to the high was three ticks. The observation does not establish that a later breakout occurred.
Unit conversion matters: 538.25 is a cents-per-bushel quotation, not $538.25 a bushel. The 2.50-cent increase equals $0.025 per bushel. Stating the dollar equivalent alongside the exchange convention prevents a hundredfold misreading of the commodity’s quoted value.
Contract exposure and physical corn
CME’s grain contract specifications list 5,000 bushels for standard corn futures. Today’s snapshot represents $26,912.50 in notional exposure at that size, and the reported increase corresponds to $125 across one contract’s quantity. Those calculations exclude fees and do not describe the cash required as margin.
A December futures quote is not a universal farm-gate bid. Delivery location, grain quality, freight and the local cash-futures difference can change the amount received by a physical seller. No local basis or crop-quality data was captured for this report, so a producer’s realized price cannot be inferred.
Further reporting should compare the same December maturity with verified crop, export and cash-market evidence. The dated daily bar confirms the provider’s baseline, not an official exchange settlement. AI assistance supported these source checks and calculations; this is descriptive market coverage, not an instruction to trade.