Corn Sees Week-End Pressure on Friday

Corn futures close out the day with contracts 4 to 6 ¼ cents lower in the nearbys. December was still up 5 ¼ cents over the course of the week.

Export Sales data showed old crop corn with net reductions of 173,097 MT in the week of August 29. That was below estimates calling for net reductions of 100,000 MT to net sales of 200,000 MT but normal for the last week of the marketing year. New crop business was reported at 1.822 MMT, which was a MY high and above the estimated range of between 0.7 to 1.4 MMT. Mexico purchased 806,000 TM of that total, with 475,800 MT sold to unknown destinations. 

Sorghum sales totaled 61,950 MT for old crop and 251,000 MT for new crop. The total for the two marketing years of 312,950 MT is the largest since February. China was the buyer of the bulk. 

Friday afternoon’s Commitment of Traders report showed spec funds covering a total of 65,697 contracts in net over the short week that ended on September 3. That took their net short position to 176,211 contracts by Tuesday, the smallest since May 28. Commercials were busy adding to their net long short by 57,784 contracts to a net short 75,640 contracts, mainly on long liquidation. 

A South Korean feed importer purchased 68,000 MT of US corn in a tender on Thursday. Safras estimates the 2024/25 Brazilian corn acreage to be down slightly from last year at 51.57 million acres. Production, however, is expected to be well above a year ago at 133.57 MMT according to Safras estimates.

Sep 24 Corn  closed at $3.83 3/4, down 6 1/4 cents,

Nearby Cash  was $3.71 5/8, down 4 1/2 cents,

Dec 24 Corn  closed at $4.06 1/4, down 4 1/2 cents,

Mar 25 Corn  closed at $4.24 1/2, down 4 3/4 cents,

New Crop Cash  was $3.71 5/8, down 4 1/2 cents,