Corn Rallied into Weekend

The nearby corn futures rally extended into the weekend with another dime for old crop. The March contract was within 3 1/4 cents of the contract high on Friday and completed the week with a 19 3/4 cent gain. New crop prices were also 2 3/4 to 5 cents higher going home. The weekly average cash corn oil price was 67.1 to 69 cents/lb regionally through the week. That compared to 62.5 – 64.4 cent average prices last week. DDGS FOB prices were reported higher as well, with USDA seeing NOLA bids at $265/ton and PNW at $290/ton. Last week’s FOBs were $252 and $287 respectively. 

CFTC’s weekly CoT report had managed money firms at 365,605 contracts net long at the settle for 1/25. That was a 39,082 contract stronger net long from last week, fueled by net new spec buying. The commercials also added 46,488 new shorts for a 47.5k contract stronger net short of 678,313 contracts. That was the strongest commercial net short since May of last year. 

USDA’s Ag Attache had Argentina’s corn crop at 51 MMT. That was 3 MMT under the USDA official forecast. 

Mar 22 Corn  closed at $6.36, up 10 3/4 cents,

Nearby Cash  was $6.22 5/8, up 10 3/8 cents,

May 22 Corn  closed at $6.33 1/4, up 10 1/4 cents,

Dec 22 Corn  closed at $5.69 1/2, up 2 3/4 cents,

New Crop Cash  was $5.53 1/1, up 2 7/8 cents,