Corn Higher for Friday Day Session

Overnight action in the corn market has prices are fractionally to 1 3/4 cents higher heading into Friday and the 3-day weekend. The markets will be closed on Monday in recognition of President’s Day. After initial weakness, corn rallied back to print new highs for the day, but then faded into the close. At the bell, futures were mixed and within 2 cents of the Wednesday settlements. New crop December was at an 82 1/2 cent discount to the spot market. 

USDA’s ERS forecasts SAF from ethanol and E-15 sales will subdue an underlying downtrend in domestic gasoline consumption, for a 10-yr outlook of mostly consistent 5.3 – 5.37 bbu corn demand. For 2023, their baseline projection was 92m corn acres and a 181.5 bpa yield with stocks growing to 1.712 bbu and the cash average price fading to $5.70/bu. By the end of the decade, stocks were presumed to be comfortable near 16 bbu as trend-line yields improve to 199.5 bpa, cash prices get steady at $4.30/bu in the long run. 

The IGC cut their outlook for global corn production from 1.161 to 1.153 billion metric tonnes. including a 2.5 MMT cut to Argentina (to 53.5 MMT) and a 5 MMT cut to the U.S. That mainly came out of use as stocks were actually 300k MT looser to 254.6 MMT. 

USDA Weekly Export Sales data showed 1.024 MMT of old crop and 100k MT of new crop corn was sold during the week that ended 2/9. The weekly report had cumulative commitments at 1.095 bbu, compared to 1.832 bbu last season, and to the 1.925 bbu full year export forecast. 

Mar 23 Corn  closed at $6.76, down 1/4 cent, currently up 1 3/4 cents

Nearby Cash   was $6.77 1/2, down 5/8 cent,

May 23 Corn  closed at $6.75, up 1 cent, currently up 1 1/2 cents

Jul 23 Corn  closed at $6.64, up 3/4 cent, currently up 3/4 cents