The corn market is starting off Thursday mixed, with contracts down factionally to up 2 cents to start the day. Corn futures closed out the Wednesday session with contracts 2 to 3 cents higher in the nearbys, as new crop December was down just ½ cent. Preliminary open interest was up 8,504 contracts on Wednesday, suggesting new buying interest in the front months. May rolled off the board at the close as there were another 76 deliveries issued to take the total to 349 for the month. The nearby CmdtyView national average Cash Corn price was up 3 cents at $4.17 3/4.

Rains are expected to be widespread this next week from the Northern Plains to the ECB. This may limit some planting progress, but will be welcomed for crops already in the ground.

Export Sales data will be released on Thursday morning, with the trade looking for corn bookings to total 0.9 to 1.5 MMT for old crop in the week of May 8. New crop sales are pegged to total 350,000 to 600,000 MT. 

CONAB data released this morning showed a 2.14 MMT increase to the corn output estimate for Brazil to 126.9 MMT. That was in large part due to a 1.9 MMT increase for the second crop. 

EIA’s weekly report showed a total of 993,000 barrels per day of ethanol produced in the week of May 9, a drop of 27,000 bpd from the week prior and the first time being below 1 million bpd since September. Stocks were building despite the output hike, up 254,000 barrels to 25.445 million barrels. Refiner inputs were up 43,000 barrels to 929,000 bpd.

May 25 Corn  closed at $4.38 1/2, up 2 1/2 cents, 

Nearby Cash  was $4.17 3/4, up 3 cents,

Jul 25 Corn  closed at $4.45 1/2, up 3 cents, currently up 1 1/4 cents

Dec 25 Corn  closed at $4.40 1/2, down 1/2 cent, currently down 1/4 cents

New Crop Cash  was $3.98 1/1, down 1/2 cent,