Corn futures shrugged off the losses in the bean and wheat markets, with contracts holding onto gains in at the close. They ended the midweek session with gains of 3 to 4 ¼ cents. The current new crop soy/corn ratio is 2.20, as the market continues to try and buy corn acres. The average close for December futures has been $4.69 in February, which is used for determining the base crop insurance price and is up 3 cents from last year so far.  The cmdtyView national average Cash Corn price was up 6 1/4 cents at $4.56 1/4. 

USDA reported a private export sale of 130,320 MT of corn to unknown destinations for 2024/25 this morning. Heading into the weekly Export Sales report on Thursday, the trade is expecting to see a total of 0.8-1.7 MMT in sales for 2024/25 in the week of 2/6. Sales for new crop as seen in a range of 0-500,000 MT. 

EIA data from this morning showed 1.082 million barrels per day of ethanol production in the week that ended on February 7. That was down 30,000 bpd on the week. Stocks were back down  720,000 barrels to 25.692 million barrels. Exports in that week rose 44,000 barrels per day to 150,000 bpd. There may be more on the way, with Gulf stocks the largest since March 2023. Refiner inputs of ethanol were 6,000 bpd lower to 854,000 bpd, even as gasoline product supplied (implied use) was the largest since before Christmas at 8.576 million bpd.

The Rosario Grains Exchange estimated the Argentina corn crop at 46 MMT, a 2 MMT reduction from their previous estimate. Early on Wednesday, a South Korean importer tendered to buy 140,000 MT of corn, with offers due on Thursday. Algeria also issued a tender for 240,000 MT of corn, with a deadline of Thursday. 

Mar 25 Corn  closed at $4.90 1/4, up 6 1/4 cents,

Nearby Cash  was $4.56 1/4, up 6 1/4 cents,

May 25 Corn  closed at $5.04, up 6 cents,

Dec 25 Corn  closed at $4.73 1/2, up 3 1/4 cents,

New Crop Cash  was $4.41 5/8, up 3 cents,