Corn price action is fractionally higher on Thursday morning. Futures closed the midweek session with contracts down fractionally to 1 ½ cents in the nearbys. New crop contracts saw 1 to 2 ¼ cent gains. Open interest was up 23,996 contracts on Wednesday. The CmdtyView national average Cash Corn price was down 1 1/4 cents at $3.94.
The average close for December futures in February has been $4.58, as the base spring price for crop insurance is underway. Last year it was $4.70.
Export Sales data will be out this morning, with traders looking for between 0.6-1.1 MMT of 2025/26 corn sold in the week of 2/5. Sales for 2026/27 are seen 0-100,000 MT in that week.
EIA showed ethanol production bouncing 154,000 barrels per day in the week ending on February 13 to 1.11 million barrels per day. Ethanol stocks were up 111,000 barrels to 25.247 million barrels. Exports did slip back 79,000 barrels per day to 137,000 bpd, with refiner inputs up 50,000 bpd to 841,000 bpd.
CONAB trimmed their Brazilian corn crop estimate by 0.42 MMT to 138.45 MMT this morning, as the second crop was cut by 1.2 MMT.
Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.27 1/2, down 1 1/4 cents, currently up 1/2 cent
Nearby Cash was $3.94, down 1 1/4 cents,
May 26 Corn closed at $4.36 1/2, down 3/4 cent, currently up 3/4 cent
Jul 26 Corn closed at $4.44 1/4, down 1/2 cent, currently up 1/2 cent
