Corn futures rose on Wednesday, with contracts increasing by 7 to 9 cents, while deferred contracts gained 2 to 4 ¾ cents. The CmdtyView national average Cash Corn price climbed to $4.20, up 9 ¼ cents. Crude oil also saw a boost, rising by $3.61 on the day.
According to EIA data released on March 13, ethanol production fell to 1.093 million barrels per day, down 33,000 bpd from the previous week, while stocks rose by 827,000 barrels to a total of 26.407 million barrels. Exports decreased by 14,000 bpd to 174,000 bpd, and refiner inputs dropped by 25,000 bpd to 876,000 bpd. The national average gasoline price increased from $2.94 at the end of February to $3.72 as of March 16.
Looking ahead, export sales data will be available Thursday morning, with expectations ranging from 0.6 to 1.8 million metric tons of old crop corn sales for the week ending March 12. An Allendale survey estimates U.S. corn acreage for this year at 93.68 million acres, representing a decrease of 5.12 million acres from last year.
