Corn Futures Soar on Private Export Sale and Strong Demand
Corn futures have been trading with gains on Friday, reaching midday highs of $4.42 3/4 and up 3 3/4 cents from Thursday's close.
The recent price increase follows a private export sale of 286,097 MT of corn to Mexico by the USDA, with 29,808 MT for the 2026/27 crop year and 256,289 MT for the 2027/28 crop year. This comes ahead of next Wednesday's August Crop Production report from NASS.
A Reuters survey of analysts predicts a yield of 182.4 bushels per acre, with a range of 180.5 to 184.8 bpa. Harvested acres are expected to be trimmed by 76,000 acres, resulting in an estimated production of 15.934 billion bushels.
New crop accumulated sales have reached 9.65 MMT, which lags the same pace from last year by 18.1%. However, old crop corn commitments stand at 87.09 MMT, a 23% increase from the same period last year and ahead of the pace from each of the last three years.