Corn futures eased back lower into the weekend, closing Friday with contracts steady to 5 cents lower led by the nearbys. Front month May was down 3 ½ cents this week. The CmdtyView national average Cash Corn price was down 5 cents to $4.19 1/2.

Export Sales data from Thursday tallied old crop corn commitments at 68.875 MMT, a 30% improvement from last year. That is now 82% of the USDA export projection and is behind the average pace of 86%.

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Commitment of Traders data showed a total of 55,744 contracts added to the managed money net long position in corn futures and options as of Marc 24. That took the total to 284,548 contracts. Commercials added 45,429 contracts to their net short position to 567,545 contracts.

Ahead of the USDA March Intentions report next week, traders are looking for 94.37 million acres of corn to be reported by NASS. That would be a 4.4 million decline from last year if realized. Grain Stocks data is expected to be tallied at 9.104 billion bushels for March 1, which would be up 957 million bushels from a year ago if realized.

May 26 Corn  closed at $4.62, down 5 cents,

Nearby Cash  was $4.19 1/2, down 5 cents,

Jul 26 Corn  closed at $4.73 1/2, down 4 1/2 cents,

Dec 26 Corn  closed at $4.90 1/4, down 4 1/4 cents,

New Crop Cash  was $4.48 7/8, down 4 cents,

On the date of publication, Austin Schroeder did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com