Futures are starting the last market day of the week fractionally mixed, but mostly a ¼ cent higher. The corn market continued to set new lows on Thursday, and with 6 ½ to 7 ½ cent losses ended the session within ½ a cent of said lows. Dec futures remain 39 cents above the spot March contract. The new crop soy/corn ratio was 2.498 at the settle on Thursday.
USDA reported 1.3 MMT of old crop corn was booked during the week that ended 2/8. That was a 12-wk high for export sales. Corn shipments were 903k MT for a season total of 17.96 MMT (+31% yr/yr). Outstanding sales are 40% ahead of last year with 18.26 MMT on the books.
The International Grains Council tightened their outlook for 23/24 global corn carryout by 1 MMT to 286 MMT. That came despite a 4 MMT increase to global production, adopting the USDA NASS Corn Crop Production number from January.
USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist projects 91 million corn acres will be planted this spring, ahead of the survey driven Planting Intentions report at the end of March. Traders were looking for about 600k more than that on average. Preliminary S&Ds have total supply growing 1.9 bbu (mostly via larger carry-in yr/yr), and carryout increasing by 360 mbu to a burdensome 2.5 billion.
The French AgriMer raised their outlook for corn carryout to 2.4 MMT from the 2.2 MMT previous forecast.
Mar 24 Corn closed at $4.17 3/4, down by 6 1/2 cents, currently up 1/4 cent
May 24 Corn closed at $4.29 3/4, down by 7 1/2 cents, currently up 1/4 cent
Jul 24 Corn closed at $4.39 3/4, down by 7 1/2 cents, currently up 1/4 cent
Dec 24 Corn closed at $4.56 3/4, down by 7 1/2 cents currently up 1/4 cent
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