Corn Jumps 6.4% on Strong Export Demand and Short Covering

US July corn futures closed limit up at the Chicago Board of Trade, settling 40 cents higher at $6.64½ per bushel.  This comes on the heels of corn reaching a one-month low.  Corn drew support from strong export numbers this week, notably for new-crop shipments of more than 224 million bushels; primarily to China.  

Exports of corn have been strong all season, with 2020/21 sales more than 70 percent over the prior season.  Today’s export report was enough to spur short-covering and a technical-buying bounce following the recent sell-off.

Weekly Export Activity

Weekly soybean export sales for the 2020/21 marketing year of 55.9 thousand metric tons (TMT) were 34 percent below last week’s total and 65 percent under the four-week average of 159 TMT. There were 248.3 TMT in sales…