Corn futures held on to gains on Wednesday, despite pulling off early highs. Most nearby contracts were fractionally to 2 ½ cents higher, with a few deferreds steady to fractionally lower. The CmdtyView national average Cash Corn price was up 1 1/4 cents at $4.33 1/2.
EIA’s weekly report showed a larger than expected drop in ethanol production in the week that ended on April 24, of 31,000 barrels per day to 1.009 million barrels per day. That was also 31,000 bpd below the same week last year. The drop in output helped to draw down stocks, which were own 1.067 million barrels to 25.881 million barrels. Refiner inputs of ethanol were down 4,000 bpd to 917,000 bps, with exports rising 79,000 bpd to 170,000 bpd.
USDA’s Export Sales report will be released on Thursday morning, with analysts expecting to see 1-1.9 MMT of old crop corn sold in the week of 4/23. New crop business is estimated to be 0-500,000 MT.
Taiwan purchased 65,000 MT of corn from the US in a tender overnight.
May 26 Corn closed at $4.66 1/2, up 1 1/4 cents,
Nearby Cash was $4.33 1/2, up 1 1/4 cents,
Jul 26 Corn closed at $4.77 3/4, up 2 1/4 cents,
Dec 26 Corn closed at $4.97 3/4, up 2 cents,
New Crop Cash was $4.54 1/4, up 1 1/4 cents,
