Corn Closes Higher on Friday

The Friday rally put corn back into the black for the week. The front months were 1.3% to 2% higher on the day, with May’s 11 1/4 cent gain leaving the contract 8 3/4 cents above last week’s close. December futures stayed a penny below last Friday’s settle and remain at a 9 1/2 cent loss for the month. 

The weekly Ethanol report from USDA had the week’s average prices ranging from $2.03 - $2.15/gl in NE to $2.18 - $2.24/gal in IL, which was mostly 3 to 9 cents higher for the week. DDGS were quoted from $235-245 in MI to $280-300/ton in MO for the week leaving regional prices mostly higher from -$10 to +$17/ton. Corn oil prices were mostly weaker though the week with 1-8 cent regional losses to 49 – 58 cents/gal quotes. 

The weekly CFTC reports, now current, had corn spec funds 41,896 contracts net short as of 3/21. That was a 12k contract weaker net short for the week, mainly driven by net new buying. Commercial corn hedgers put 8k new short hedges on for the week. That left the group at 175,450 contracts net short. 

A Farm Futures survey shows corn area will shrink 1.1% for the year with a 87.68m acre area. That differs from the average trade estimate in a Bloomberg survey released this afternoon, which put the average trade estimate at 90.9 million acres. 

USDA confirmed another large export sale to China, with 204k MT of old crop sold in a daily announcement. Algeria is tendering for 70k MT of corn – likely to be sourced from South America. 

May 23 Corn  closed at $6.43, up 11 1/4 cents,

Nearby Cash   was $6.47 1/1, up 11 3/8 cents,

Jul 23 Corn  closed at $6.23, up 12 1/4 cents,

Dec 23 Corn  closed at $5.60 1/4, up 8 cents,