Corn Weakens into Weekend

Front month corn futures extended the week’s slide into the weekend with Friday losses of 9 33/4to 15 cents. For March that ended the week as a net 25 cent loss. New crop futures were firmer on Friday with red Dec going home just 3 1/4 cents lower. Dec ’23 closed the week on a 12 3/4 cent loss Friday to Friday. USDA reported the cash average ethanol prices were $2.13 to $2.39/gal regionally this week, mostly 5 to 12 cents weaker wk/wk. Corn oil prices were 72 to 84 cents/lb regionally, mostly lower within 3c of UNCH from last week. DDGS were mostly higher on the week, withing $20/ton of UNCH from $200 - $255 regionally. Bids in MO got up to $330/ton as the expensive outlier. 

CFTC’s weekly CoT report showed managed money funds were buying corn through the week that ended 11/29. Their net long grew 20.8k contracts to 191,631 – with 14k new longs and 7k fewer shorts. Commercial corn trader open interest shrank by 10.5% through the week as the Dec options expired and deliveries began. More longs were closed than shorts, expanding the groups net short by 20k contracts to 440,927 contracts. 

Data from Statistics Canada showed 2022/23 corn production at 14.539 MMT. That was down 400k MT from the September report, and the average pre-report estimate had 14.8 MMT plugged in. Last year’s drought had Canadian corn output at 13.98 MMT. 

Brokerage firm StoneX estimated the Brazilian 22/23 corn crop at 130.3 MMT, a 5.5% increase from their prior estimate. They now have 2nd crop at 99.6 MMT, with the first crop UNCH at 28.6 MMT. 

Dec 22 Corn  closed at $6.35, down 15 cents,

Nearby Cash   was $6.52 1/4, down 14 5/8 cents,

Mar 23 Corn  closed at $6.46 1/4, down 14 1/4 cents,

May 23 Corn  closed at $6.47 1/4, down 12 cents,