Corn Selling Continues as President Trump Follows Through with Tariffs

The corn market is heading south on Tuesday morning, with contracts down 4 to 9 cents across the nearbys.  Corn closed the Monday session with longs continuing their exodus ahead of the March 4 tariff start date. Contracts were down 13 to 14 cents in the front months, with new corn December 3 ¾ cents. Preliminary open interest was down 27,763 contracts. There were another 59 deliveries issued against March corn futures overnight.  CmdtyView’s national average Cash Corn price was down 8 cents at $4.15. 

President Trump has followed through with the 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada. There has yet to be any retaliatory measures from either country ahead of the potential implementation. In response to the additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods, China has issued a 15% tariff on imports of US corn, though they have nothing on the books for US corn imports.

The monthly Grain Crushing report from NASS showed a total of 457.389 mbu of corn used for ethanol production in January. That was a 4.6% decline from December’s revised (6.5 mbu higher) total but 3.7% larger than the same month last year. That took the marketing year grind for ethanol to 2.322 bbu, 2.17% above the 2023/24 MY.

Monday morning’s Export Inspections report showed a total of 1.351 MMT (53.2 mbu) of corn shipped in the week that ended on February 27. That was an increase of 15.86% from last year and 17.91% above the same week last year. The largest destination was Mexico at 41,6371 MT, with 272,570 MT to Japan and 138,421 MT to Spain. Marketing year exports are now at 27.257 MMT (1.073 bbu), which is now 31.69% above the same week last year.

Mar 25 Corn  closed at $4.40 1/4, down 13 1/4 cents, currently down 8 3/4 cents

Nearby Cash  was $4.15, down 8 cents,

May 25 Corn  closed at $4.56 1/4, down 13 1/4 cents, currently down 8 cents

Dec 25 Corn  closed at $4.51 1/4, down 3 3/4 cents, currently down 4 1/4 cents

New Crop Cash  was $4.17 3/4, down 3 1/4 cents,