Corn Morning Update & Commentary: Overnight, corn futures pulled back slightly after a strong holiday run, finishing around two cents lower by the biscuit break. The corn market is still tracking for a slightly higher weekly close; settling below $4.54 CH today would negate that. The weekly export sales report also took a little breather, no doubt influenced some by Christmas timings (w/e 12/26). New corn sales of 777,000 metric tons (mt) were 44% below the four week average. Usual suspects.....
<div class=\"default-font-wrapper\" style=\"line-height: 1;font-size: 12pt; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;\">Corn Morning Update & Commentary:<br><br id=\"isPasted\">Overnight, corn futures pulled back slightly after a strong holiday run, finishing around two cents lower by the biscuit break. The corn market is still tracking for a slightly higher weekly close; settling below $4.54 CH today would negate that. The weekly export sales report also took a little breather, no doubt influenced some by Christmas timings (w/e 12/26). New corn sales of 777,000 metric tons (mt) were 44% below the four week average. Usual suspects Mexico, Japan, and Colombia, were top buyers, and a cargo of ‘unknown’ corn was switched to South Korea. Corn sold/shipped for the year moves to 38.8 million metric tons (mmt), which is comfortably ahead of last year’s 29.8 mmt. Beyond the report, there is not a lot of fresh news, and there are probably more than a few market participants looking to extend for a long holiday weekend. We do not see much change yet in the South American weather dynamic, but the recent bull run will be sensitive to any improvements in Argentina. There were no 8 AM sales today, and export news is quiet.<br> <br>The corn market started the new year much like it closed out the last year; with modest gains. Futures overcame small early losses to close out Thursday 1-3 cents higher. Funds likely added to their longs and are believed net long a total of 180,000 delta-adjusted contracts. CFTC update again will be pushed to Monday. Cash was steady/weak as the markets digest recent farm selling. The weekly EIA report was bearish for ethanol, as it almost always is this time of year, though with ethanol production continuing to exceed expectations, one can argue it is friendly to corn usage. Ethanol production upticked +0.3% to a 1.111 mil bbl/day rate; we were expecting a small pullback. Over a marketing year, such a lofty rate of production would utilize 5.80 billion bushels of corn. Blender demand saw its usual -7% post-Christmas plunge. Ethanol exports also slipped, falling to 99k bbl/day vs. 166k last week, though much better than 69k last year. Ethanol stocks built the expected +2.4% to 23.639 million barrels (993 million gallons). Ethanol futures did not react much to the report, maintaining roughly breakeven profit margins for the industry. A separate weekly USDA report found broiler egg sets and chick placements up 4% yr/yr.<br> <br> <br>QT News - Top News<br> <br>**USDA Corn 24/25 Export Sales Net (12/26): 777,000 mt; 25/26 Net: NONE mt; expected 800k-1.5 mln<br> <br>**USDA Sorghum (Total) 24/25 Export Sales Net (12/26): 18,900 mt; 25/26 Net: NONE mt<br> <br> <br> <br>-- USDA's FAS Thursday afternoon announced next week's weekly Export Sales data for the period ending January 2nd will be delayed by one day until Friday, Jan 10th due to funeral in Washington DC for former President Carter<br> <br>-- UN's food agency world food price index for December fell to 127.0 from November's revised 127.6 figures. Most of the decline was attributed to falling sugar prices worldwide. The index in 2024 rose +6.7%, but was still 20% lower than the all time high level reached in March 2022.<br> <br>-- Thursday's USDA Grain Crushing & Co-Products: November 2024 Corn for Fuel Alcohol: 464.938 mln bushels<br> <br>-- Thursday's USDA Grain Crushing & Co-Products: November 2024 dry mill DDGS: 1.836 mln tons<br> <br>-- Due to the National Day of Mourning for President Carter, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) has rescheduled the Weekly Slaughter data release from Jan. 9 to Jan. 10 at 3 p.m. ET. Other reports scheduled for release on Jan. 10 such as Crop Production and Grain Stocks reports will be published as scheduled<br> <br>-- CME Group agricultural and interest rates markets will close at 12:15 p.m. CT on Thursday, January 9 in observance of former President Carter's funeral. All products trading on CME Globex will reopen at their regularly scheduled time on January 9 for a trade date of January 10.<br> <br> <br> <br>Pending Tenders<br> <br>NA<br> <br> <br> <br>-- Euronext Paris March corn futures on Friday are trading -1.00 euro lower at 211.75 euros/mt<br> <br>-- Dalian May corn futures on Friday traded -7 yuan lower ending at 2,227 yuan/mt<br><br>KJ</div>