Corn futures are working fractionally to 1 ¼ cents in the black so far starting the week. The May contract was up by 3 ¾ cents earlier in the session for a 6 ½ cent trading rangeCME reported OI dropped in the old crop futures for a net -12.5k contracts overall on Friday. Options open interest increased on Friday, with 8.7k new calls added and 6.9k new puts in play.
CFTC reported major short covering from the funds during the week that ended 3/12. Managed money traders dropped 37.6k short contracts (8% of existing) reducing their net short to 256k contracts. The commercial corn hedgers flipped them back to net short by 31,068 contracts.
The weekly Export Inspections data showed 1.24 MMT of corn was shipped during the week that ended 3/14. That was up from 1.17 MMT the week prior and was slightly above the same week last year. USDA added 32k MT of corn exports to past weeks for a 23.1 MMT accumulated export as of 3/14. That remains 31% ahead of last year’s pace.
Ukraine’s Ag Ministry reported grain shipments totaled 32.4 MMT, including 17.4 MMT of corn, for the season-to-date. That is 9.4% below last year, with corn shipments trailing last year’s pace by 17%.
According to the traders at the BAGE, corn conditions in Argentina worsened last week, with the portion of the crop rated good/ex declining to 25% and the part rated poor/very poor increasing by the same 4 percentage points to 17%. Harvest for the late planted corn is just starting at around 3% completed.
May 24 Corn is at $4.37 3/4, up 1 cent,
Nearby Cash is at $4.12 1/4, up 1 cent,
Jul 24 Corn is at $4.50 1/4, up 1 1/4 cents,
Dec 24 Corn is at $4.71 1/2, up 3/4 cent,
On the date of publication, Alan Brugler did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
/Super%20Micro%20Computer%20Inc%20logo%20on%20building-by%20Poetra_RH%20via%20Shutterstock.jpg)
