“Prices were down $.02-$.04 in choppy, 2-sided trade. Spreads finished a bit firmer. Both July-26 and Dec-26 traded at new highs for the month. July-26 could not penetrate the upper end of its $4.50-$4.80 range while Dec-26 held just below $5.00 while ending its run of consecutive higher closes at 9. Deliveries against May-26 corn were 19 contracts. Ethanol production has been below expectations the past 2 weeks. Heavy rains from earlier this week will likely not slow corn plantings for long. Export sales at 63 mil. bu. were in line with expectations and brought old crop commitments to 2.980 bil. bu. up 29% from YA, vs. the USDA forecast of up 15.5%. Commitments represent 90% of the USDA forecast, vs. the historical average of 86%. Noted buyers were Colombia – 17 mil. while Mexico, Venezuela and unknown all bought 9-10 mil. U.S. corn acres in drought slipped another 2% to 25%, the lowest since Sept-25,” according to Mark Soderberg with ADM Investor Services.