Corn futures are trading fractionally higher so far on report day. The March contract stayed within a 1 ¾ cent range overnight from -¾ to +1 cent. After a back and forth session, the nearby corn market ended with 1 ¾ to 2 ½ cent losses on Thursday. March printed a 5 ¾ cent range on the day from -3 ¾ to +2 cents.
USDA reported 487,600 MT of old crop corn was sold during the week that ended 1/4 -which was the low end of expectations. Colombia, Japan and Mexico were the largest buyers. Sorghum sales were 133,000 MT, all to China.
CONAB cut their estimate for Brazil’s corn production to 24.4 MMT for first crop, with 91.2 MMT expected for 2nd crop and a 23/24 total output of 117.6 MMT. That is down from 132 MMT last year and is 11.4 MMT below the December USDA figure. On the other hand, the Rosario Board of Trade hiked their estimate of the Argentine corn crop to 59 MMT vs. USDA’s 55 MMT in December. Pre-report estimates for Argentina released on Monday ranged from a 1.5 MMT cut to a 1 MMT boost with 54.8 (-200k) MMT representing the average trade guess
Analysts expect USDA will reduce the Brazilian corn crop by 2.5 MMT on average to 126.5 MMT on Friday. With delayed and replanted soybeans, the Brazilian 2nd corn crop is expected to get a late start and smaller acreage. The IGC raised their world corn production forecast 7 MMT to 1.23 billion metric tonnes. They had been well below USDA.
Mar 24 Corn closed at $4.57 3/4, down 1 3/4 cents, currently up 3/4 cent
Nearby Cash was $4.32, down 1 3/8 cents,
May 24 Corn closed at $4.69 3/4, down 1 3/4 cents, currently up 1/4 cent
Jul 24 Corn closed at $4.79, down 2 1/4 cents, currently up 1/2 cent
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