Monday Corn Closes in Black

Corn spent most of Monday in the red, but ended the day near the highs. March corn closed up by 1 1/2 cents after trading in a 7 cent range from -5 1/4 to + 1 3/4 cents. The other front months went home up by 1 3/4 to 3 1/4 cents on the day. 

USDA announced two large private export sales this morning, with 111,800 MT of old crop sold to Japan and 100k MT of each old crop and 23/24 crop sold to Mexico. 

Weekly Export Inspections data showed 480,205 MT of corn was shipped during the week that ended 2/02. That was a drop of 62,784 MT for the week and was 55% below the same week last year. Mexico was the top destination with 322k MT of the total. The accumulated corn shipments remain 33% behind last year's pace with 12.5 MMT shipped MYTD. USDA also had 496,706 MT of sorghum exports for the season through 2/02 – that trails last year’s 2.433 MMT pace. 

Ukraine’s Ag Ministry expects the 2023 grain harvest will be 45-50 MMT, down from 2022’s 53.2 MMT grain crop – itself includes ~9% of unharvested corn in the fields. 

Ahead of the monthly S&Ds from USDA, the trade is looking for a 3.5 MMT cut to the Argentina corn crop and a 300k MT boost for Brazil. Total global carryout is expected to be 1.5 MMT lighter at 294.5 MMT. 

Mar 23 Corn  closed at $6.79, up 1 1/2 cents,

Nearby Cash   was $6.83 5/8, up 2 1/8 cents,

May 23 Corn  closed at $6.77 3/4, up 2 1/4 cents,

Jul 23 Corn  closed at $6.68, up 3 1/4 cents,