Afternoon Corn: A mixed close to a slightly lower shortened week
<div class=\"default-font-wrapper\" style=\"line-height: 1;font-size: 12pt; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;\"><div style=\"line-height: 1;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;\">Afternoon Corn: <br id=\"isPasted\"> <br>Corn futures held mixed feature on “Synthetic Friday”, though it never really strayed far from the flat line. The market finished steady to two cents lower across the curve. For the week, corn closed eight cents lower. CFTC will be out tomorrow as usual with a fund positioning update. Cash trade held steady.<br> <br>The weekly export sales report helped get the day started on the right foot. Net corn sales of 1.562 million metric tons (mmt) easily blew away expectations and nearly doubled the prior week amount. Mexico, Japan, Spain, Colombia, and Panama, were the main buyers of record. Shipments for the period were also pegged at a marketing year high? Corn sold/shipped for 24/25 moves up to 56.6 mmt, meaningfully better than the prior year period’s 44.7 mmt, and is comfortably on track to meet the USDA’s recently upgraded sales target of 64.8 mmt. There was not much export news around today, including no 8 AM flashes. The U.S.-Japan meeting made ‘big progress’ in the White House’s parlance, but ultimately did not reach a deal with a second meeting set one week out?<br> <br>Weather will likely get a look when markets fire back up Sunday night. We think current conditions lean neutral to mildly bearish. The most important input will be how Brazil rain coverage shakes out later this month. Coverage does not seem universal? U.S. planters should be rolling in the west, but the east will continue to be bogged down by wet soil and more rain incoming this weekend. Argentina looks set to dry out some after big recent rains.<br> <br>Elsewhere, outside markets were mixed; equity indices mostly higher, crude sustaining its recent rebound, and the US Dollar nearly flat. New three year low in the US Dollar on a closing basis on the weekly continuation chart? End-user markets were mostly firm to close out the week. Cattle on Feed report after the close was near expected; ‘on feed’ seen 98%, though placements did come in high at 105% (103% expected). May be a little bearish for cattle futures Monday? The May grain futures delivery cycle begins in just over one week.<br> <br>In the options, volatility held around steady. July upside calls were popular; 1,000+ lots of the $5.10, $5.15, and $5.25 strikes traded either side of the noon hour. Calendar spreads were slightly easier. Inter-market spreads held little independent feature for a second day. Looking at the charts, recent strength has raised the floor of support under corn; we suspect breaks back to $4.70-75 May will find buyers. Old crop futures have worked off their overbought position with the RSI now in the low/mid 60’s. Recent highs ($4.90) will function as initial resistance on a recovery. CZ remains overbought with an RSI still sitting in the mid 70’s after trading to a new six week high yesterday off the bull spread correction. February highs at $4.80 look imposing for CZ should the rally continue. We see support there at 4.50-55 on a correction.<br> <br>KJ </span></div></div>