Corn Leaking Lower on Risk Off Ahead of Weekend

Corn futures are trading with early 5 to 7 cent losses on Friday morning in sympathy with the bean market and a risk off approach heading into the weekend. Bulls pushed back on Thursday, coming off overnight lows and closing with front months fractionally mixed and new crop December down 1 ¼ cents. Preliminary open interest was down 1,011 contracts on Thursday.  The CmdtyView national average Cash Corn price was down 1/4 cent on the day at $4.27 1/4. 

In response to President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, China issued a retaliatory tariff of 34% on all US goods overnight. While there is very little corn on the books to China, the market is furthering the risk off trade ahead of the weekend.

Export Sales data from Thursday showed 1.173 MMT in 2024/25 corn sales during the week ending on March 27. That was a 12.9% increase from the week prior and still 23.8% larger than the same week last year. South Korea was the tp buyer of 339,400 MT, in that week with Mexico in for 226,500 MT and Japan buying 168,500 MT. New crop sales were tallied at 165,000 MT, all for Japan.

February corn exports were reported at 6.03 MMT (237.5 mbu) according to Census data from Thursday morning. That was down 2.11% from the January total but up 12.33% from last year and the third largest Feb total on record. That takes the marketing year total to 1.207 bbu through the end of February. DDG exports were back below last year at 849,645 MT, with ethanol just 0.2% below 2024 at 138.75 million gallons.

May 25 Corn  closed at $4.57 1/2, down 1/4 cent, currently down 6 cents

Nearby Cash  was $4.27 1/4, down 1/4 cent,

Jul 25 Corn  closed at $4.65 1/2, up 1/4 cent, currently down 6 1/2 cents

Dec 25 Corn  closed at $4.47 1/2, down 1 1/4 cents, currently down 5 1/2 cents

New Crop Cash  was $4.10, down 1 3/4 cents,