Corn Red for Day Trade

Current corn prices are 3 to 7 cents in the red going into the midweek’s day trade. The corn futures market ended Tuesday’s session 2 3/4 to 4 1/4 cents in the red. The Dollar Index was lower again on Tuesday, going into the widely anticipated FOMC decision this afternoon.  Preliminary open interest shows more net new selling, rising 4,593 contracts. 

The Commitment of Traders data for the week ending March 14 was released today, and showed spec traders had added 48.8k shorts and closed 26.4k longs during the week. That flipped the spec funds to net short for the first time since August 2020. CFTC showed commercial hedgers were adding longs during the week, which reduced their net short by 66k to 165,518 contracts as of 3/14. 

Brazil’s Agroconsult estimates their old crop corn exports at 50 MMT. USDA also had 50 dialed in for the March forecast.  Ukraine’s Farm Ministry forecasts a 9 MMT lighter grain harvest of 44.3 MMT for 2023. Of that, 25.6 MMT is forecasted to be corn production. Corn acreage is down due to shortages of fertilizer and fuel, along with ordinance and mines in eastern fields. 

May 23 Corn  closed at $6.30, down 3 cents, currently down 3 cents

Nearby Cash   was $6.34 5/8, down 2 7/8 cents,

Jul 23 Corn  closed at $6.11 1/4, down 4 1/4 cents, currently down 3 1/2 cents

Dec 23 Corn  closed at $5.56 3/4, down 3 1/4 cents, currently down 4 3/4 cents