Corn Closes Mixed on Monday

May corn fell double digits on Monday, ending the session with a 12 cent loss. The other front months also finished mostly lower, though by less. July went home 7 cents lower, while Dec closed a half a cent weaker. The deferred new crop contracts finished fractionally to 2 1/4 cents higher on the day. May is still a 43 3/4 cent premium to July. 

USDA’s NASS reported that 14% of the 23/24 corn crop was planted as of 4/23. That was up from 8% last week, with significant advancements in KY, NC, and TN. Nebraska was shown 10% planted compared to their 7% average pace, while IA matches the 5-yr average pace at 10% planted. Missouri was shown 58% planted compared to the 5-yr average pace of 18%. National emergence reached 3%, compared to 2% on average. 

Analysts are looking for StatsCan to report 3.7m acres of 23/24 corn area ahead of Wednesday’s report. That would be up 80k acres from last season if realized. The full range of estimates is from 3.4 to 3.8m acres. 

USDA announced a large export sale cancelation this morning, as China canceled 327k MT of old crop corn purchases, which drove the May contract sell off. 

Weekly Export Inspections data showed 913,813 MT of corn was shipped during the week that ended 4/20. That was a drop from 1.24 MMT last week and was down 752k MT from the same week last year. Japan was the week’s top destination, though Mexico, China, and Colombia also had more than 100k MT. The full season’s corn export total was marked at 22.36 MMT as of 4/20, which is 36% behind last year’s pace. 

May 23 Corn  closed at $6.51 1/4, down 12 cents,

Nearby Cash   was $6.40 7/8, down 6 7/8 cents,

Jul 23 Corn  closed at $6.07 1/2, down 7 3/4 cents,

Dec 23 Corn  closed at $5.47 1/2, down 1/2 cent,