Corn Pulls Back USDA, Confirms Solid Crop Ratings

Corn futures ended the Monday session with contracts down 2 to 5 cents across the front months, after failing overnight gains. 

Crop Progress data from Monday afternoon showed 91% of the US corn crop planted by June 2, 2% ahead of the five-year average pace. Emergence was tallied at 74%, a 1% jump on that average development pace. The initial NASS crop rating was pegged at 75% gd/ex vs. the 64% from the same week last year. That is a 385 on the Brugler500 index, the best start to the year since the 391 in 2018.

A private export sale of 110,000 MT of corn was reported to Spain for old crop shipment by USDA this morning. Export Inspections data reported 1.374 MMT (54.1 mbu) of corn shipped in the week that ended on May 30. That was 21.59% larger than last week and 13.89% above the same week last year. Mexico was the lead destination of 404,282 MT, with 393,9087 MT headed to Japan. Cumulative exports year to date are 37.741 MMT (1.485 bbu), which is 26.08% larger than the same period in the 22/23 MY.

The monthly Grain Crushing report tallied 416.92 mbu of corn used for ethanol production during April. That was a 11.7% decline on the month but still up 0.69% from the same month last year. 

Brazil’s AgRural pegs the second Brazilian corn crop at 4.7% harvested, well above the 1.4% from last year. StoneX trimmed their second corn crop projection by 3.7 MMT to 93.5 MMT. 

Jul 24 Corn  closed at $4.43 1/2, down 2 3/4 cents,

Nearby Cash  was $4.23 1/4, down 3 3/4 cents,

Sep 24 Corn  closed at $4.49 1/4, down 4 3/4 cents,

Dec 24 Corn  closed at $4.62 3/4, down 4 1/4 cents,

New Crop Cash  was $4.25 3/4, down 6 1/8 cents,