Corn futures climbed into Wednesday’s close with a solid run: front-month contracts gained 3-5 cents each, pulling the national cash average up 3.5 cents to $3.96/bu.
What triggered the move? The EIA dropped a record-breaking ethanol grind number—1.123M barrels per day, a 32K bpd jump week-over-week. That’s not chump change. On the flip side, ethanol stocks grew 288K barrels to 22.655M, but exports actually cooled off: down 68K bpd to 107K bpd. Refiner inputs dipped 7K bpd to 904K bpd.
The uncertainty factor: The government shutdown means no official export sales data for over a month now. Analysts are flying blind-ish, estimating US exporters moved 0.8-2 MMT of corn in the week ending 10/30.
Contract snapshot:
Dec 25: $4.35¼ (+3¾¢)
Mar 26: $4.49½ (+4¾¢)
May 26: $4.58¼ (+4¾¢)
The ethanol demand story is holding up the grain complex for now—question is whether it sticks around when we finally get real trade numbers.
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Corn Surges on Record Ethanol Production Momentum
Corn futures climbed into Wednesday’s close with a solid run: front-month contracts gained 3-5 cents each, pulling the national cash average up 3.5 cents to $3.96/bu.
What triggered the move? The EIA dropped a record-breaking ethanol grind number—1.123M barrels per day, a 32K bpd jump week-over-week. That’s not chump change. On the flip side, ethanol stocks grew 288K barrels to 22.655M, but exports actually cooled off: down 68K bpd to 107K bpd. Refiner inputs dipped 7K bpd to 904K bpd.
The uncertainty factor: The government shutdown means no official export sales data for over a month now. Analysts are flying blind-ish, estimating US exporters moved 0.8-2 MMT of corn in the week ending 10/30.
Contract snapshot:
The ethanol demand story is holding up the grain complex for now—question is whether it sticks around when we finally get real trade numbers.