Corn futures posted gains of 2 ½ to 7 ¼ cents in Friday, led by now nearby December, as September rolled off the board. That helped to propel Dec to a weekly gain of 7 cents from last Friday. The nearby Cash Corn from cmdtyView was up 7 ½ cents to $3.78 ½ on the day.

The Friday afternoon Commitment of Traders report showed specs in corn futures and options cutting another 44,077 contracts from their net short as of September 10. That stood at 132,134 contracts net short, the smallest since May and a drop of more than 220,000 contracts from the peak net short in July. Commercials added 31,709 contracts to their net short position as of Tuesday to 107,349 contracts, with 29,185 additional shorts, implying producers were moving corn in that week.

Export Sales data shows total corn export commitments at 13.36 MMT, which is a 3-year high to begin the marketing year and 20% larger than a year ago. That is also 23% of USDA’s currently 2024/25 export projection, which does lag the 28% average pace.

Sep 24 Corn  closed at $3.90 3/4, up 4 1/2 cents,

Nearby Cash  was $3.78 1/2, up 7 1/4 cents,

Dec 24 Corn  closed at $4.13 1/4, up 7 1/4 cents,

Mar 25 Corn  closed at $4.31, up 6 1/2 cents,

New Crop Cash  was $3.78 5/8, up 7 1/4 cents,