Corn Holds onto Gains as USDA Trims Yield
A yield cut from the USDA earlier on Friday helped futures to close the day with fractional to 3 ¾ cent gains. December managed a 16 ½ cent jump this week. The national average Cash Corn price from cmdtyView was up 4 cents at $4.04 1/2 per bu.
USDA reported private export sales of 200,480 MT of 24/25 corn to unknown destinations during the reporting period this morning.
USDA’s Crop Production report saw a reduction in yield by 0.7 bpa to 183.1 bpa. The harvested acreage was left unchanged this month, as expected. That took production down 60 million bushels to 15.143 mbu.
A smaller output helped to tighten down the projected stocks total by 61 mbu to 1.938 bbu, as the World Ag Outlook Board chose to leave the demand side of the balance sheet alone. That was despite the robust ethanol production and export business to start the year. On the world side, South American production was left unchanged, with world ending stocks down 2.38 MMT to 304.14 MMT.
CFTC data from after the close showed spec funds in corn futures and options flipping to a net long of 22,043 contracts in the week that ended on November 5. That was a move of 39,746 contracts to the long side and the first net long for the managed money crowd since August 2023. Commercials were adding to their net short position by 24,794 contracts to the largest since June 2023 at -242,949 contracts.
Dec 24 Corn closed at $4.31, up 3 1/2 cents,
Nearby Cash was $4.04 1/2, up 4 cents,
Mar 25 Corn closed at $4.44 1/4, up 3 3/4 cents,
May 25 Corn closed at $4.51 1/2, up 3 3/4 cents,
On the date of publication, Austin Schroeder did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.