Thursday’s trading session left the corn market ~6c off the day’s highs, but still 13 to 16 cents in the black. Old crop May ended the week with a 2 ¾ cent gain and finished the last trade day of March with a 12c gain for the monthly. The new crop Dec contract ended the week with a 2 ½ cent gain and ended the month 14 ¼ cents stronger. The new crop soy/corn ratio was 2.483 at the close, which was up from the 2.446 ratio starting the month. 

NASS data showed corn stocks were counted at 8.347 bbu as pf March 1st, including 5.079 bbu on farms and 3.27 bbu off farms. The trade was looking for stocks to come in near 8.45 bbu, which was a pleasant surprise and implied a 3.823 bbu Q2 demand. That was up from 3.417 bbu last year. 

Prospective plantings data from NASS had corn area at 90.04 million acres which was down 4.61 million acres yr/yr vs the 2.84 million acre drop expected on average. The largest drop was 700k acres in MN, though IA/IL/IN/MO/OH and SD were each 300k acres lower yr/yr. 

Weekly Export Sales data showed 1.206 MMT of corn was sold during the week that ended 3/21. That was at the top end of estimates led by sales to Mexico and Canada. 

May 24 Corn  closed at $4.42, up 15 1/4 cents,

Nearby Cash   was $4.20 1/2, up 16 cents,

Jul 24 Corn  closed at $4.54 1/2, up 15 1/4 cents,

Dec 24 Corn  closed at $4.77 3/4, up 15 1/2 cents,