Corn prices are working near their overnight lows with 1 ½ to 3 ¾ cent losses so far into the new week. The lead month corn contract closed below the $4 mark on Friday for the first time since the Fall of 2020. March options also expired on Friday with up to 9k $4 puts converted to short futures. The other front months were 3 ¾ to 5 cents lower for the week and a net 16 (May) to 9 (Dec) cents weaker for the week. Preliminary open interest showed net new selling, down 12,518 contracts for the day.
Weekly Commitment of Traders data showed corn specs added 16k new shorts with 10.5k fewer longs which left their net short at 340.7k contracts for 2/20. That is a new record net short for the reporting group going back to 2006. Commercial corn hedgers added longs during the week, taking their net long to 58,342 contracts from 40.2k last week.
The weekly Export Sales data showed 820k MT of corn was sold during the week that ended 2/15. Traders were looking for at least 700k MT. USDA had commitments at 37 MMT, or 30% ahead of last year’s pace.
Mar 24 Corn closed at $3.99 3/4, down 6 1/4 cents, currently down 3 3/4 cents
Nearby Cash was $3.81 1/2, down 6 1/8 cents,
May 24 Corn closed at $4.13 1/2, down 5 cents, currently down 3 1/4 cents
Jul 24 Corn closed at $4.26 1/4, down 4 1/2 cents, currently down 2 1/4 cents
On the date of publication, Alan Brugler did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Disclosure Policy here.
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