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Corn futures closed strong on Friday, with contracts up 10 to 11 cents. The December contract closed with a 12-cent gain last week, while the preliminary open interest increased by 22,325 contracts. The CmdtyView national average cash corn price rose by 10.5 cents to $3.85 ½. As of September 25, the September corn closed unchanged at $3.99, with December and March contracts closing at $4.30 and $4.47 ¼, respectively.
The USDA’s monthly Crop Production report indicated a yield of 186.7 bushels per acre (bpa), down 2.1 bpa from August. Acreage was raised by 1.47 million acres to nearly 98.728 million, and production increased by 73 million bushels (mbu) to 16.814 billion bushels (bbu). The 2024/25 US stocks estimate rose by 20 mbu to 1.325 bbu, and carryout decreased by 7 mbu to 2.11 bbu due to a 100 mbu increase in export demand.
Globally, USDA raised the old crop figure by 1.07 million metric tons (MMT) to 284.18 MMT, while new crop world stocks decreased by 1.14 MMT to 281.4 MMT. The CFTC reported a total of 8,442 contracts added to the spec fund in corn futures for a net short position of 99,929 contracts as of September 9.
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