Corn Futures Drop into Weekend; WASDE to Feature Tuesday

Corn futures ended the session lower, down 4–5 cents across most contracts, with March closing at $4.30 1/4, May at $4.38 3/4, and July at $4.45 1/4. The national average Cash Corn price fell to $3.97 3/4, while the average close for December futures in February was $4.58—down from $4.70 in the same period last year. Export commitments reached 58.735 MMT, 31% higher than the prior year and 72% of USDA's projection, ahead of the 71% average pace. StatsCanada reported ending stocks at 10.95 MMT as of December 31, down 3.3% from the previous year. The CFTC's net speculative short in corn totaled 68,786 contracts, trimmed 3,464 contracts from the week of February 3. Data will be released Tuesday with USDA's WASDE, and traders are pricing an average US ending stocks figure of 2.215 bbu.