Corn futures are up 2 to 4 cents so far on Friday morning. The corn market ended the Thursday session with contracts down 3 to 4 cents in the nearbys and up a penny in December. Preliminary open interest was up 6,510 contracts on Thursday, most coming in December. There were another 28 deliveries issued for May corn futures overnight, all stopped by an RJO customer. The nearby CmdtyView national average Cash Corn price was unch at $4.42 ¾.

The next week shows spottier totals of around 1 inch in parts of MO, IL, and IN, with OH seeing some heavier totals. Areas south of that are expected to receive more. The WCB is looking drier, with much of NE, IA, WI, MN, and the Dakotas expected to receive little to no precipitation.

Export Sales data showed 1.014 MMT of 2024/25 corn sold in the week of April 24, a 3-week low but up 33.7% from the same week last year. Mexico was the largest buyer of 451,400 MT, with 166,200 MT to Colombia and Israel buying 130,700 MT. New crop bookings were tallied at 244,704 MT. That was the second largest total for the marketing year. Mexico purchased 184,700 MT, with 56,000 MT sold to Japan. 

The monthly Grain Crushing Report from NASS showed 454.197 million bushels of corn used for ethanol production in March. That was up 7.7% from the February figure but a 3.79% drop from last year. The marketing year corn used for ethanol is at 3.209 billion bushels, up ~18 mbu vs. the same time last year and the largest through March since 2017/18.

The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange estimates the Argentina corn crop at 31% harvested, a slow 1% progression on the week.

May 25 Corn  closed at $4.64 1/4, down 3 cents, currently unch

Nearby Cash  was $4.42 3/4, up 0 cent,

Jul 25 Corn  closed at $4.72 1/4, down 3 1/4 cents, currently up 2 1/2 cents

Dec 25 Corn  closed at $4.47 1/4, up 1 cent, currently up 3 1/2 cents

New Crop Cash  was $4.07 3/4, down 1/2 cent,