COLUMN-Funds CBOT corn buying vastly underwhelms after low U.S. acreage -Braun

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Nasdaq
By Reuters

By Karen Braun

NAPERVILLE, Ill., April 10 (Reuters) - Chicago-traded corn futures surged after U.S. farmers reported they would plant significantly fewer acres this year than analysts predicted, but that did not have speculators adding much more length in the subsequent days.

Investors have been bullish toward corn since September 2020, and their recent optimism has rivaled some of their strongest within that period. Justification to maintain those positions came on March 31, when the U.S. governments acreage survey unexpectedly showed 2022 corn plantings would fall 4% on the year.

Most-active CBOT corn futures Cv1 jumped 4.6% in the week ended April 5 and new-crop December CZ2 surged 8.2%. Commodity funds were predicted to have bought nearly 50,000 corn futures in the period.

However, data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Friday showed the managed money net long at 362,306 corn futures and options contracts as of April 5, up just 7,702 from a week earlier.

Some of that buying was found on the commercial side of the market, as prospects for tight U.S. corn supplies through mid-2023 likely spooked end-users. Index funds also increased total corn positions by 4%, reaching a nine-month high.

Nearby and deferred corn added more than 1% over the last three sessions, with new-crop futures on Friday notching a contract high of $7.17-3/4 per bushel. Most-active corn set a one-month top on Friday of $7.73.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday maintained its projection for 2021-22 U.S. corn ending stocks, though Brazils corn crop came in larger than expected and Chinese imports were reduced.

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