Corn Closes Red on Friday

Front month corn futures settled the Friday session with fractional to 1 1/2 cent losses. The December contract saw a tight 7 1/2 cent range from -6 cents to +1 1/2 cents on the day. It was also down for the week. USDA reported the cash price for ethanol was mainly 3 to 8 cents higher for the week from $2.37 to $2.50/gal regionally. Corn oil was seen 1 to 5 cents higher from 74 to 78 cents/lb regionally. DDGS prices were mostly lower from -$25 to +$10/ton, with sales from $205 to $245/ton regionally. 

The weekly CoT report showed managed money corn traders added 14.3k new longs through the week. Along with their 4.2k new shorts, that grew their net long by 10k contracts to 264,347 as of 10/25. Commercial corn hedgers added 11.6k new shorts and closed 9.5k existing longs for a 21k contract stronger net short of 476,353 contracts – the most since June. 

The European Commission reduced their corn crop outlook by another 600k MT to 54.9 MMT citing the summer’s historic heat wave. That is now 25% lower yr/yr with imports 1 MMT higher to 22 MMT. France is 96% harvested as of 10/24, data from FranceAgriMer. That is up from 51% last year. Ukraine’s grain harvest reached 70% complete, with 4.5 MMT of corn specifically. 

BAGE reported 22% of the 22/23 Argentine corn crop was planted. 

Dec 22 Corn  closed at $6.80 3/4, down 1 1/2 cents,

Nearby Cash   was $6.72 7/8, down 1 1/8 cents,

Mar 23 Corn  closed at $6.86 3/4, down 1 cent,

May 23 Corn  closed at $6.86 1/4, down 3/4 cent,