On Friday, January 12, the USDA released the WASDE. The report was bearish for corn prices due to global ending stocks being increased to the highest amount in six years.
Global ending stocks for the 2023/24 marketing year were pegged at 325 million metric tons (mmt). This is an increase of +10 mmt from last month’s report and the highest in the last six years. Most of the increase can be attributed to the USDA increasing China’s production +11.8 mmt to 288.8 mmt, which it based on figures from the latest official Chinese government data. For Brazil, the USDA decreased its production by -2 mmt to 127 mmt. CONAB (Brazil’s USDA equivalent) has Brazil corn production 117.6 mmt per its latest estimates.
United States
The USDA increased US corn yields up +2.4 bushels per acres (bpa) to a record high of 177.3 bpa. US production was also expanded to a record 15.3 billion bushels. US ending stocks increased +31 million bushels to 2 billion bushels for December's report.
On Friday, the CBOT (CME) March corn contract settled at 447 cents/bushel, a decrease of –10.75 cents from the previous day and a new contract low.