The corn market was in the red for much of the Thursday session with losses of 12 to 14 cents in the nearbys at the close and new crop December down 5 ¼ cents. Pressure was coming from multiple directions, via a possible tariff threat this next week and weaker export business. USDA’s large acreage number was not helpful, though a shift to corn this spring has been expected. CmdtyView’s national average Cash Corn price was 11 3/4 cents lower at $4.34. 

With just one day left for the base crop insurance price discovery, the average for December corn futures closes has been $4.71 so far this month. That is up a nickel from last year. 

This morning President Trump corrected the statement about an April start date on the Mexico/Canada tariffs, stating he misspoke. The implementation date is still on for next Tuesday and the other reciprocal tariffs going on in April.

Weekly Export Sales data from this morning showed just 794,694 MT in corn bookings for old crop corn during the week of 2/20. That was below estimates and the lowest total in 7 weeks. Mexico was the largest buyer of 378,800 MT, with Columbia buying 184,300 MT. New crop sales totaled 128,000 MT, above the estimated 0-100,000 MT. 

The annual USDA Outlook Forum numbers were released this morning, showing corn acreage estimated at 94 million acres by Office of the Chief Economist. That non-survey driven number is up 3.4 million from last year. Their balance sheet used a 181 bpa ‘weather adjusted’ trend yield, with a projected carryout of 1.965 billion bushels.  

The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange tallied the Argentina corn crop at 21% excellent, up 2% from last week, with the poor ratings down 1% to 29%. 

Mar 25 Corn  closed at $4.64 3/4, down 13 1/2 cents,

Nearby Cash  was $4.34, down 11 3/4 cents,

May 25 Corn  closed at $4.81, down 12 1/2 cents,

Dec 25 Corn  closed at $4.61 3/4, down 5 1/4 cents,

New Crop Cash  was $4.28 3/8, down 6 1/4 cents,