Corn bulls showed up on Wednesday to defend the $4 level on September, but fell short by the close. Contracts were still 1 to 2 cents in the green at the close. The front month CmdtyView national average Cash Corn price was up 1 ½ cents at $3.85 1/2. 

Wednesday morning’s weekly EIA report showed an uptick in production of 9,000 barrels per day in the week ending on July 4 to 1.085 million barrels per day. Stocks, meanwhile, were down 158,000 barrels to 23.959 million barrels despite a 10,000 bpd drop in exports to 121,000 barrels and 23,000 bpd reduction in refiner inputs to 902,000 bpd.

Export Sales data is expected to show between 375,000 and 900,000 MT of 2024/25 corn sold in the week ending on July 7/3. New crop is seen in a range of 150,000 to 700,000 MT for that week. 

A survey of traders by Bloomberg shows estimated corn stocks for old crop at 1.351 billion bushels ahead of Friday’s USDA report, a 14 mbu reduction from June if realized. New crop production is expected to be trimmed by 75 mbu via fewer acres to 15.746 bbu. That would help to tighten the new crop stock estimate to an average of 1.721 bbu (vs. 1.75 bbu in June).

A Ukraine grain trader union estimates the country’s 2025 corn crop at 29.25 MT, with exports up to 24 MMT for 2025/26.

Jul 25 Corn  closed at $4.12 1/2, up 1 1/2 cents,

Nearby Cash  was $3.85 1/2, up 1 1/2 cents,

Sep 25 Corn  closed at $3.99 1/4, up 1 1/4 cents,

Dec 25 Corn  closed at $4.15 1/2, up 1 1/4 cents,

New Crop Cash  was $3.75 5/8, up 1 1/4 cents,