Corn and Crude Rally out of Weekend

Corn futures are 1 ½ to 3 cents in the  black on Monday morning, given a boost by higher crude oil prices following the Hamas attack on Israel. Dec corn tried to get over the $5 round number on Thursday and again early in the Friday trade – having came up a penny short. Dec has been sub-$5 since August. Friday’s session ended with nickel losses across the front months to limit the week’s gain. December was still 15 ¼ cents higher for the week. Preliminary open interest showed long liquidation, down 3,941 on Friday. 

USDA’s National Weekly Ethanol report showed cash prices were mainly steady to a penny lower with last week from $2.25 to $2.38/gal. DDGS were shown from $180 to $220/ton regionally, mostly $5-$15 weaker. Corn oil quotes averaged 65 to 70 cents for the week regionally, mostly 1 to 5 cents/lb lower. 

CFTC’s Commitment of Traders report had short covering in corn by the managed funds. That reduced their net short by 9,173 contracts to 159,433 as of 10/3. Commercial hedgers added 14.5k new short hedges through the week, in addition to the 3k fewer longs, for a 33,945 contract net short. 

BAGE reported corn planting advanced 6.6% points to 13.9% complete as of 10/5. They maintained their expected area as 7.3m HA for the Argentine crop (vs. 6.7 million HA a year ago). Coceral dropped their estimate for EU grains by 6.9 MMT to 289.8 MMT citing early summer dryness. 

Dec 23 Corn  closed at $4.92, down 5 1/2 cents, currently up 2 3/4 cents

Nearby Cash   was $4.59 5/8, down 5 cents,

Mar 24 Corn  closed at $5.07 1/4, down 5 cents, currently up 2 3/4 cents

May 24 Corn  closed at $5.15 1/4, down 5 1/4 cents, currently up 2 3/4 cents