Corn futures are trading with 2 to 5 cent gains early on Friday. Bulls found some late day momentum to push 1 to 3 cents higher at the close. Open interest dropped 19,806 contracts overall on Thursday, with 45,855 contracts laving March. First notice day showed just 9 deliveries overnight all issued by the Bunge house account. The CmdtyView national average Cash Corn price was up 2 1/2 cents to $4.00 1/2.
The spring base Crop Insurance price will be set by the close today, as the average December corn close has been $4.61, down 9 cents from last year.
Export Sales data for the week of 2/19 was released on Thursday morning, with a total of 682,804 MT sold in that week. That was down 29% from the week prior, it was still 1.1% above the same week last year. Mexico was the top buyer of 373,600 MT, with 171,700 MT sold to Japan. New crop was 11,685 MT.
A couple separate South Korean importers purchased a total of 201,000 MT of corn in a tender overnight.
Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.33 1/4, up 2 3/4 cents, currently up 4 1/2 cents
Nearby Cash was $4.00 1/2, up 2 1/2 cents,
May 26 Corn closed at $4.43 1/2, up 1 1/2 cents, currently up 3 1/2 cents
Jul 26 Corn closed at $4.51 1/4, up 1 cent, currently up 3 cents
