Corn Fades into Close

Futures settled red after attempting a Friday bounce. Corn rallied at the open, but began a descent after the first hour. The market flipped red at the end leaving the board fractionally to 1 3/4 cents weaker on the day. July printed a wide 20c range on the day. For the week July corn futures were 31 3/4 cents lower. 

Weekly Commitment of Traders data showed net spec fund buying through the week that ended 5/16. As of the Tuesday close, managed money added 12.3k new longs and closed 5.4k existing shorts; which reduced their net short in corn to 91,985 contracts. The commercials added 52k new hedges through the week, but only extended their net short by 4.5k contracts to 117,725. 

China’s Dalian Corn Prices were stronger on Friday with a 20 yuan rally to 2,540 yuan/MT (~ $9.20/bu). For the week, old crop May fell 5 yuan (~ 2 cents) but new crop November was up by 9 (~ 3 1/2 cents). Chinese customs data had 1 MMT of corn imported during the month of April. That was down 55% from April ’22 and set their YTD imports at 8.52 MMT. 

The weekly Ethanol report showed the cash average ethanol price was mostly higher from 2 to 9 cents/gal for the week, ranging $2.30 to $2.45/gal regionally. USDA noted the DDGS market as mostly firm within $15/ton of last week. Prices ranged from $220/ton in Ohio to $280 in Kansas. Corn oil quotes varied within 3 cents of last week from 53 to 57 cents/lb regionally. 

The International Grains Council expects Argentina’s old crop corn production is 42.8 MMT, compared to 37 MMT from WAOB. Total old crop output was set at 1.153b MT for 22/23 with 265.6 MMT carryout. IGC’s new crop May numbers were for a 1.217 billion MT crop and a 272.3 MMT carryout. 

Jul 23 Corn  closed at $5.54 1/2, down 3/4 cent,

Nearby Cash   was $5.86 7/8, down 7/8 cent,

Sep 23 Corn  closed at $4.94 1/2, down 1 cent,

Dec 23 Corn  closed at $4.99 3/4, down 1 cent,