Friday Gains Follow a Rough Month for Corn Bulls
Corn settled 2 to 3 ¾ cents higher across the front month contracts on Friday. December futures ended ended the week with a net 6 ½ cent loss. Dec corn had seen a 49 ½ cent range through the month of August, but closed at a net 34 ¾ cent loss.
The weekly CFTC data showed the managed money corn traders were buying 10.6k new longs and buying back 8.1k existing shorts during the week that ended 8/29. That reduced their net short by 18.8k contracts to 87,348 as the group has been net short for 4 consecutive weeks. The commercial corn hedgers reduced exposure by 73.3k contracts through the week. More longs were closed than shorts, leaving the commercials with a 22.6k contract stronger net short of 103.5k contracts.
USDA’s weekly National Ethanol report cited cash prices for the fuel from $2.08 to $2.15/gal regionally. Most areas were 2 to 10 cents/gal higher for the week. DDGS were shown from $195-$210/ton regionally. Compared to last week, prices were within $20/ton of UNCH with near equal regions higher and lower wk/wk. The cash corn oil market was mostly weaker by 1 to 2 cents, from 66 to 70 cents/lb regionally.
The monthly Grain Crush data from NASS had 454 mbu of corn used for ethanol during the month of July. That was a 1.9% increase from July LY and a 2.7% increase from June’s draw, but was below the average pre-report estimate. The full year’s draw sits at 4.733 billion bushels – or 90.6% of USDA’s forecast. The august draw needs to have been 491.97 mbu (which would be a new all time record by 4.26 mbu) to hit the 5.225 bbu USDA forecast.
Sep 23 Corn closed at $4.64 3/4, up 3 3/4 cents,
Nearby Cash was $4.64 5/8, down 17 5/8 cents,
Dec 23 Corn closed at $4.81 1/2, up 3 1/4 cents,
Mar 24 Corn closed at $4.96 1/2, up 2 1/2 cents,
On the date of publication, Alan Brugler 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.
