Corn Turning Around into Wednesday

Corn futures traded mostly red overnight, but kept a fairly tight range from -2 1/2 to +1 cents. Into the day session, the market is near the lows with 2 to 2 1/2 cent losses across the board. Yesterday, corn futures saw a 7 1/2 cent intraday range and ultimately settled with fractional to 3 1/4 cent gains.  Preliminary open interest sank 22,423 contracts, with options traders exiting March in droves ahead of expiration on Friday.

USDA’s weekly Export Inspections report showed 622,841 MT of corn was exported during the week that ended 2/16. That was 59k MT more than the week prior with shipments to Mexico and Japan each totaling over 100k MT. The season’s total corn export was 13.735 MMT according to the weekly data, which remains 7.9 MMT behind last year’s pace. 

The Rosario Grains Exchange forecasts 8.7 MMT of corn exports from Argentina for the March-June window. That would be down 40% from last year, citing both the lower availability due to drought and the lower seasonal availability due to a shift towards late planting. 

Brazil’s AgRural estimated 40% of the 2nd crop expected area has been planted. That was up from 24% planted last week but remains behind the unusually fast 53% pace last season. 

Mar 23 Corn  closed at $6.80 1/2, up 2 3/4 cents, currently down 2 1/4 cents

Nearby Cash   was $6.82 1/8, up 2 3/4 cents,

May 23 Corn  closed at $6.80 1/2, up 3 cents, currently down 2 1/2 cents

Jul 23 Corn  closed at $6.69 1/4, up 3 1/4 cents, currently down 2 1/2 cents