Corn futures are trading with Thursday morning gains of 2 to 3 cents. Bulls were battling back on the Wednesday session, as contracts closed out the session with just fractional to 1 ¾ cent losses in most nearbys. Preliminary open intertest was down 3,344 contracts on Wednesday, with 13,522 exiting the September. The CmdtyView national average Cash Corn price was down 2 1/4 cents at $3.63 3/4.

The weekly EIA data showed a total of 1.081 million barrels per day of ethanol was produced during the week ending on August 1, a drop of 15,000 bpd from the previous week. With the drop in output, stocks saw a draw of 960,000 barrels to 23.756 million barrels. Refiner inputs of ethanol were up 2,000 bpd to 922,000, with exports dropping a total of 38,000 bpd to 116,000.

Export Sale estimates ahead of this morning’s release are calling for between 200,000 and 400,000 MT in old crop corn sales during the week of July 31. New crop business is estimated to total 1.3-2.5 MMT, as 1.1 MMT was already announced via daily releases last week.

Brazil exported a total of 2.434 MMT of corn during July, which was a drop of 31.51% from last year’s total but well above the June total. A slower second crop harvest and soybeans still taking up a large chunk of the vessel lineup were a factor.

Sep 25 Corn  closed at $3.79 3/4, down 1 3/4 cents, currently up 2 ½ cents

Nearby Cash  was $3.63 3/4, down 2 1/4 cents,

Dec 25 Corn  closed at $4.01 1/4, down 3/4 cent, currently up 2 ¾ cents

Mar 26 Corn  closed at $4.19 1/4, down 3/4 cent, currently up 3 cents

New Crop Cash  was $3.60 3/4, down 1 3/4 cents,