Corn Fading Back Early on Wednesday

Corn price action is down fractionally to 2 cents so far on Wednesday morning. Futures posted gains of 4 to 5 cents across most contracts on Tuesday, following a bullish USDA report. Open interest was up 6,413 contracts on Tuesday, suggesting net new buying. The CmdtyView national average Cash Corn price was up 4 1/2 cents at $4.03 1/2. 

The monthly WASDE was out this morning, showing a 125 mbu cut to US ending stocks, now at 2.029 billion bushels. That was well below estimates and came all from an increase to the export category. 

On the world side, the largest adjustment was via increase carryover (+1.71 MMT), mainly in Argentina, as the US cut more than off set that. World ending stocks for 2025/26 are seen at 279.15 MMT, a 2.19 MMT drop from last month. Other notable adjustments was a 3 MMT cut to Ukraine output.

CFTC data from the week of November 4 showed corn speculators cutting 17,990 contracts from their net short position, taking it to 71,516 contracts.

A couple South Korean importers purchased a total of 136,000 MT of corn in tenders overnight. Taiwan tendered for 65,000 MT of corn. 

ANEC estimates the December Brazilian corn export total at 6.3 MMT. That is a 1.31 MMT increase from last week’s projection and would be 2.03 MMT increase over last year’s total in December. Argentina trimmed their export tax on corn by 1 percentage point to 8.5% according to a release from the country’s economic minster. 

Dec 25 Corn  closed at $4.40 3/4, up 4 1/2 cents, currently down 3/4 cent

Nearby Cash  was $4.03 1/2, up 4 1/2 cents,

Mar 26 Corn  closed at $4.48, up 4 1/4 cents, currently down 1 3/4 cents

May 26 Corn  closed at $4.55 1/2, up 4 1/4 cents, currently down 1 1/4 cents