The weekly Commitment of Traders report from the CFTC showed that a total of 140,297 contracts were added to the speculative fund net long position in futures and options during the week ending March 10. This marked the largest Tuesday-to-Tuesday bullish move since May 2019 and pushed the net position to 193,271 contracts. Producer selling was noted, as commercials added 143,803 contracts to their net short position, taking it to 477,414 contracts.

Export Sales data released on Thursday showed marketing year corn export commitments at 66.513 MMT, which is 32% higher than the same period last year. This represents 79% of the USDA’s export estimate and is close to the average pace of 80%. Shipments have reached 41.74 MMT, which is 50% of the USDA projection and ahead of the average pace of 43%.

CONAB estimated the Brazilian corn crop at 138.27 MMT, down 0.18 MMT from last month. The first crop estimate was increased by 0.65 MMT to 26.7 MMT, while the second crop estimate was reduced by 0.83 MMT to 108.43 MMT.