Corn Hold Gains, Following Decent Export Sales Data

Alan Brugler Barchart Thu May 23, 4:55PM CDT
Ear of corn - by Couleur via Pixabay

Corn futures held on tight for gains to close out the Thursday session. Contracts were up 1 to 3 cents across the board as the final bell rang. Friday will be the last trade session before a 3-day weekend, with the markets closed for Memorial Day on Monday.

USDA’s weekly Export Sales report pegged a 4-week high in corn bookings at 911,151 MT during the week of May 16. That was in the middle of the 500,000 MT and 1.2 MMT estimates and 22.8% above the previous week. The top buyer was Mexico of 350,300 MT, with 273,800MT sold to China (263,000 MT switched from unknown) and 220,100 MT purchased by Japanese importers. New crop sales came in at 304,952 MT, the second highest for the MY and 286,000 MT sold to Mexico. 

The International Grains Council cut the world corn production estimate by 6 MMT to 1.220 billion MT. Mixed with a 2 MMT increase in consumption took the ending stocks number fown 10 MMT from the April Projection to 281 MMT

Jul 24 Corn  closed at $4.64, up 2 3/4 cents,

Nearby Cash  was $4.41 1/8, up 3 1/4 cents,

Sep 24 Corn  closed at $4.73 1/4, up 3 cents,

Dec 24 Corn  closed at $4.86 1/2, up 2 1/2 cents,

New Crop Cash  was $4.49 1/2, up 2 7/8 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.