Corn Gives Back Friday Gains

Coming out of the weekend, corn futures are 3 to 6 cents per bushel lower. The Friday session ended with corn prices back up by 4 1/4 to 5 3/4 cents. As with the previous Friday, there were rumors of Chinese corn buying interest. The March contract is set to expire on Tuesday, with May currently at a 7 cent discount. For the week, the more liquid May corn futures were down 22 1/4 cents. The new crop soy/corn ratio was back down to 2.43:1 on Friday.  

There were 8 delivery notices vs. March corn over the weekend, with ADM stopping 7 for the house account. The oldest dated long is February 28. 

USDA reported the average cash prices for ethanol last week were mostly higher, from +2 to +8 cents regionally. DDGS quotes were mixed regionally within $30/ton of last week, from $240 to $270/ton regionally. The weekly Ethanol report also had mostly stronger corn oil prices from 55 to 58 cents/lb, within 5 cents of last week. 

CFTC data, now as of Feb 21, shows managed money corn traders at 215,928 contracts net long. That was a drop of 18,937 from the previous week. Nearby futures were down 1 ½ cents that week. 

May 23 Corn  closed at $6.17 1/4, up 5 3/4 cents, currently down 6 3/4 5 cents

Nearby Cash   was $6.18 on Friday, up 5 3/4 cents,

Jul 23 Corn  closed at $6.06 1/2, up 4 3/4 cents, currently down 6 3/4 5 cents

Dec 23 Corn  closed at $5.57 3/4, up 4 1/4 cents, currently down 3 1/4 cents