Corn prices fell by 1 to 2 cents across most contracts on Friday morning, with July futures down 5 ¼ cents following mixed trading on Thursday. The USDA is set to release a report today that has prompted traders to adjust positions, resulting in a preliminary open interest drop of 4,834 contracts. There were 33 deliveries against July futures overnight, with the national average cash corn price holding steady at $3.85 ¼.
The USDA reported a private export sale of 110,000 MT of corn to unknown destinations on Thursday. For the week ending July 3, old crop corn bookings reached 1.262 MMT, marking an 8-week high and more than double from last year. Mexico was the largest buyer at 469,900 MT.
A Bloomberg survey estimates old crop corn stocks at 1.351 billion bushels, down 14 million bushels from June, while new crop production is anticipated to decrease by 75 million bushels to 15.746 billion bushels. This reduction would tighten the new crop stock estimate to an average of 1.721 billion bushels.
