Corn futures closed the Wednesday session with contracts up 2 to 5 cents in most nearby contracts. The front month CmdtyView national average Cash Corn price was up 3 cents at $4.56 1/2. The markets will be off on Friday for Good Friday, with Thursday being the last trade day for the week. 

Rains expected from the Gulf to the Great Lakes area in the next week may put a halt to much early planting across the country.

Export Sales data will be released this morning with the trade looking for between 0.6 and 1.8 MMT in old crop bookings in the week ending on 4/10. New crop is seen in a range of 0-300,000 MT.

EIA data from Wednesday morning showed ethanol production continuing to drop, down 9,000 barrels per day in the week ending on April 11 to 1.012 million bpd. Ethanol stocks saw a draw of 220,000 barrels to 26.814 million barrels. Exports of ethanol were tallied at 137,000 bpd, down 37,000 bpd from the previous week, with refiner inputs of ethanol up 30,000 bpd to 902,000 bpd.

Brazil’s CONAB estimates the country’s ethanol production at 37.19 billion liters, up from their prior 36.08 billion gallon estimate. Sugarcane, which is a large portion of the ethanol feedstock is expected to take up 29.35 billion gallons of that production total.

May 25 Corn  closed at $4.84 1/4, up 3 cents, currently down 1 1/2 cents

Nearby Cash  was $4.56 1/2, up 3 cents,

Jul 25 Corn  closed at $4.91 3/4, up 2 1/4 cents, currently down 1 1/2 cents

Dec 25 Corn  closed at $4.66 3/4, up 2 1/2 cents, currently down 1 cent

New Crop Cash  was $4.31 3/4, up 2 1/2 cents,