Corn futures attempted to reduce the week’s draw down with a Friday bounce into the weekend. The March and May contracts faded for the close and ended the day in the red, leaving March on a net 12 ½ cent loss for the week and new contract lows. The new crop contracts held onto gains for the day, though Dec was still down a net 9 ½ cents for the week.
The weekly CFTC update showed more new managed money shorts for corn during the week that ended 2/13. The net new selling extended the group’s net short by 16.6k contracts to 314,341 – which is within 7.9k of their record net short. Commercial corn hedgers were 16.7k contracts more net long to 40.2k contracts – also within 7k of their record net long.
USDA’s National Ethanol report had ethanol prices ranging from $1.40 to $1.59/gal regionally for the week. That was mostly unch to 3c weaker. DDGS were quoted from $185/ton in MI to $236/ton in MO with most sales $5-$10 weaker on the week. Regional corn oil prices ranged from 44.82 cents to 46 cents/lb, within 2 cents/lb of last week.
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.
Mar 24 Corn closed at $4.16 1/2, down by 1 1/4 cents,
May 24 Corn closed at $4.29 1/2, down by 1/4 cent,
Jul 24 Corn closed at $4.40 1/4, up by 1/2 cents,
Dec 24 Corn closed at $4.58 3/4, up by 2 cents,
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