Red Close for Corn after Report Day

Corn prices sold off at 9AM into the report, but (after an initial spike lower) had recovered back to positive territory. An afternoon fade into the close left the board a penny to 1 ½ cents lower across the front months. March traded from -4 ½ cents to +2 ¾ cents on the day. The cash price for corn was left unchanged at $4.80/bu. 

WASDE data showed U.S. corn stocks loosened by 10 mbu to 2.172 bbu, coming out of FSI (but not ethanol). Traders were looking for a 12.7 mbu tighter carryout on average. 

The global updates from WAOB had world corn production 3.16 MMT lower via a 3 MMT cut to Brazil now at 124. The trade was looking for a 2.2 cut to Brazil, though CONAB took their estimate down to 113.7 MMT. Most of that came out of their 2nd crop, cut via acreage. WAOB took the lower output out of stocks, which were 3.16 MMT tighter to 322 MMT. The average trade guess was to see a 324.6 MMT corn carryout. 

USDA announced a larger private export sale for 200k MT of corn to Colombia for 23/24 delivery. The weekly data showed 1.22 MMT of corn as sold during the week that ended 2/1. That was a 3-wk high and came in at the top end of the expected range. The season’s corn commitments sat at 34.91 MMT as of 2/1, a 30% increase from last year and 65.4% of the WASDE forecast. 

Mar 24 Corn  closed at $4.33 1/4, down 1 cent,

Nearby Cash   was $4.14 5/8, down 1 1/8 cents,

May 24 Corn  closed at $4.45, down 1 1/2 cents,

Jul 24 Corn  closed at $4.54, down 1 1/2 cents,

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