Corn Bounces Into The Weekend

Friday’s 4 to 5 cent gains in old crop left the board fractionally mixed for the week. New crop futures bounced 1 3/4 to 2 1/2 cents, ending with Dec ’23 as a net 1/4 cent gain for the week.

Chinese Dalian Corn Futures were trading on Thursday while the US was closed, and they were off their high at the bell by 11 yuan on a 9 yuan/MT gain. Today the Jan contract was up another 55 yuan/MT while March gained 30 yuan.

USDA reported 1.85 MMT of corn was booked during the week of 11/17. That was near the low end of estimates and included 1.47 MMT of previously announced business to Mexico. Accumulated commitments are now at 17.75 MMT with 5.4 MMT shipped to date, compared to the USDA’s 54.6 MMT November WASDE forecast. Mexico also bought 625k MT of new crop corn during the week, as the exclusive buyer. New crop 2023/24 forward sales sit at 939k MT compared to 564k MT at this time last year.

The EU Commission reduced their corn production forecast by 1.6 MMT to 53.3 MMT citing the summer’s drought. BAGE reported 23.8% of the corn crop was planted as of 11/23, down 6.2% yr/yr.

Dec 22 Corn  closed at $6.68, up 4 3/4 cents,

Nearby Cash   was $6.75 3/4, up 4 1/4 cents,

Mar 23 Corn  closed at $6.71 1/4, up 5 cents,

May 23 Corn  closed at $6.70, up 4 1/2 cents,

Tags: corn, USDA, Mexico, Production, crop, futures, estimates