CBOT closes: Corn futures close lower, export demand limits decline

On October 18th, Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) corn futures fell on Friday, following a significant ｄｒｏｐ in the wheat market but boosted by export sales to Mexico and other destinations.

The December corn futures contract closed down 2 cents, with a settlement price of $4.04-3/4 per bushel.

This week, the most active corn contract fell by 2.65%.

The demand from Mexico, including Wednesday's announcement of the largest single day export sales volume in the United States in a year, has diverted attention from the impact of the country's rapid harvest.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on Friday that private exporters have reported selling 125000 tons of US corn to unknown destinations for shipment in the 2024/25 market year.

The export sales report released by the US Department of Agriculture on Friday showed that for the week ending October 10th, the net annual corn export sales in the US market increased by 2.2257 million tons, an increase of 82% from the previous week and an increase of 108% from the average of the previous four weeks. The market had previously estimated a net increase of 1.2 million tons to 2.2 million tons. This week, the current annual corn sales in the US market were 2.2526 million tons. The next annual corn sales in the US market will be 0 million tons.

Last week, the corn harvest in France fell further behind normal levels, and heavy rainfall continued to hinder field operations in the EU's largest grain producing country. The grain report released on Friday by the French Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Management Agency (FranceAgriMer) under the French Ministry of Agriculture showed that as of the week of October 14th, the corn harvest rate in France was 13%, higher than the previous week's 6%, but far lower than the 67% in the same period last year and the five-year average of 55%.