Corn price action is down fractionally to 1 1/2 cents so far on Monday morning. Futures were up 1 to 4 cents across the front months on Friday, as March was down 4 ¼ cents last week. Spillover support from gains in wheat was helping. Preliminary open interest was down 24,532 contracts on Friday, mostly in March, down 58,947 contracts. May was up 14,534 contracts. The CmdtyView national averageCash Corn price was up 1 3/4 cent to $3.94 1/4. With just a week left in the Crop Insurance price discovery, the average December corn close has been $4.60, down a dime from the same period last year. 

Export Sales data continues to show strong export sales, with old crop corn sales at 1.47 MMT in the week of 2/12. That was down from last week, but still 1.1% above the same week last year. New crop sales were at 65,700 MT in that week. Japan was the top buyer of 381,500 MT, with 270,100 MT sold to Mexico and 127,300 MT sold to Taiwan.

Commitment of Traders data from Friday afternoon showed a total of 20,795 contracts trimmed from the spec fund net long position in the week of February 17. That took the net short to 27,415 contracts.

A couple South Korean importers purchased a total of 130,000 MT in a tender on Friday, with at least half of that expected to be sourced from the US.

Brazil’s first corn crop is estimated at 28% harvested according to AgRural, behind the 37% average pace. The second crop was tallied at 50% planted by Thursday, lagging the 64% average pace. 

Mar 26 Corn  closed at $4.27 1/2, up 1 3/4 cents, currently down 3/4 cent

Nearby Cash  was $3.94 1/4, up 1 3/4 cents,

May 26 Corn  closed at $4.39 3/4, up 3 1/2 cents, currently down 1/2 cent

Jul 26 Corn  closed at $4.48 1/4, up 3 3/4 cents, currently down 3/4 cent

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