July Corn finished up 1 3/4 at 371 1/4, 1/4 off the high and 2 1/2 up from the low. September Corn closed up 2 at 379. This was 2 1/2 up from the low and 1/4 off the high.

July corn traded both sides of unchanged in a low volume session. The market continues to trade in the middle of the congestion area that the market has been stuck in since mid-March. Traders are keeping a close eye on weather forecasts going into the three day weekend. The Western belt and Plains will continue to see a drier pattern into the weekend and next week while the eastern belt will struggle with 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches of rain for Ohio, Indiana, southeast Illinois and into the Delta states. The longer term 8-14 day forecast has a cool and wet profile which will continue to keep early crop ratings below average. The open interest in corn went up 5,558 contracts on Tuesday, with producer selling noted in old crop corn as they finish new crop plantings and the Memorial Day holiday marks the beginning of summer. The average estimates for Thursday’s export sales are 550,000 to 850,000 tonnes. Ethanol production for the week ending May 19th averaged 1.01 million barrels per day. This is down 1.66% vs. last week and up 6.77% vs. last year. Total ethanol production for the week was 7.07 million barrels. Corn used in last week’s production is estimated at 106.05 million bushels. This crop year’s cumulative corn used for ethanol production for this crop year is 3.99 billion bushels. Corn use needs to average 98.381 million bushels per week to meet this crop year’s USDA estimate of 5.45 billion bushels. Stocks as of May 19th were 22.684 million barrels and the largest decline since April 7th. This is down 3.12% vs. last week and up 8.99% vs. last year.