AM Gains for Corn Market

Corn futures traded mostly one direction overnight, leaving the board near those highs on 1 1/2 to 5 3/4 cent gains in early Monday trading. On Friday, futures settled red after attempting a Friday morning bounce. 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. Preliminary open interest rose 3,018 contracts, showing long liquidation in July but net new selling for new crop contracts. 

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. 

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 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 world crop and a build to a 272.3 MMT carryout. 

Jul 23 Corn  closed at $5.54 1/2, down 3/4 cent, currently up 5 3/4 cents

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

Sep 23 Corn  closed at $4.94 1/2, down 1 cent, currently up 3 3/4 cents

Dec 23 Corn  closed at $4.99 3/4, down 1 cent, currently up 2 3/4 cents