Corn Slipping Back Lower Early on Monday

Group 1 - Corn prices experienced a slight decline of 1 to 2 ½ cents on Monday morning, following a previous week where futures gained 5 to 6 ½ cents, resulting in a weekly increase of 5 ¾ cents [1] - The CmdtyView national average cash corn price rose by 6 ¾ cents to $3.93 ½ [1] - USDA's Export Sales report indicated that corn bookings reached 4.01 MMT for the week of January 15, marking the largest sales since March 2021 and more than double the same week last year [2] Group 2 - The largest buyer of corn was categorized as unknown destinations at 1.242 MMT, with significant purchases also made by Japan (836,700 MT), South Korea (751,500 MT), and Mexico (422,600 MT) [2] - Managed money reduced their net short position in corn futures and options by 450 contracts, bringing the total net short to 81,324 contracts as of January 20 [3] - AgRural reported that Brazil's first corn crop is 5% harvested, ahead of last year's 2.2% pace, and raised the country's corn crop estimate by 0.6 MMT to 136.6 MMT [4]