Corn futures ended the Friday session with contracts down 1 ¼ to 3 ¾ cents across the board. December fell back 9 cents this week. The national average Cash Corn price from cmdtyView is down 2 1/2 cents at $3.83 per bu.

USDA reported private sales of 577,928 MT of corn to unknown destinations during the reporting period via their daily reporting system this morning.

This morning’s Crop Production report showed corn yield increased by 0.2 bpa to 183.8 bpa compared to estimates of a slight reduction. That raised production by 17 mbu to 15.203 bbu. The larger output was offset by a 25 mbu increase to exports. When mixed with the 52 mbu lower carryover from 2023/24 stocks, the new crop carry dropped 58 mbu to 1.999 bbu.

On the world balance sheet, the South American numbers were left unchanged, with the world stocks down by 1.83 MMT to 306.52 MMT thanks to the US cut. 

Weekly Commitment of Traders data tallied spec traders in corn futures and options cutting another 43,970 contracts from their net short as of October 8. That took their net short to the lowest since August 2023 at 23,729 contracts. Commercials were adding 35,510 contracts to their net short at 192,610 contracts on that Tuesday.

Dec 24 Corn  closed at $4.15 3/4, down 2 3/4 cents,

Nearby Cash  was $3.83, down 2 1/2 cents,

Mar 25 Corn  closed at $4.33, down 3 1/4 cents,

May 25 Corn  closed at $4.41 3/4, down 3 1/4 cents,