Corn prices are showing modest gains on Monday morning, with futures contracts up by 1 to 2 cents. The December contract ended last Friday with a fractional to 2-cent increase, reducing its weekly loss to 6 ¼ cents. Open interest rose by 18,644 contracts on Friday, as 30,857 contracts rolled out of December, primarily shifting to March, which saw an increase of 30,567 contracts. The CmdtyView national average cash corn price climbed 1 3/4 cents to $4.06.
USDA reported a private export sale of 101,000 metric tons of corn to unknown destinations on Friday morning, all designated for the 2026/27 marketing year. Weekly CFTC Commitment of Traders data revealed that managed money in corn futures and options flipped to a net short of 22,900 contracts in the week of November 3. This marked a significant bearish shift of 78,843 contracts, with outright longs reaching their lowest level since January.
The monthly NASS Crop Production report, set for release on Tuesday, is expected to show a slight reduction in corn yield by 0.6 bushels per acre, averaging 180.6 bpa according to a Bloomberg survey. Production is projected to decrease by 54 million bushels to 15.98 billion bushels. The USDA’s WASDE report is anticipated to indicate a drop in US ending stocks by 3 million bushels to 1.846 billion bushels.
Corn exports from Brazil in October totaled 5.69 million metric tons, a 9.21% increase from September but a 12.44% decline from the same month last year. AgRural estimates that 71% of the Brazilian first corn crop has been planted, close to the 72% pace from last year. APK-Inform revised its estimate for the Ukrainian corn crop to 29.1 million metric tons, down 2.7 million metric tons from their previous forecast.