We kicked off the day with Export Sales, PPI MoM & YoY, Initial Jobless Claims, Core PPI MoM & YoY, Continuing Jobless Claims, and Jobless Claims 4-Week Average at 7:30 A.M., EIA natural Gas Storage at 9:30 A.M., 4-Week & 8-Week Bill Auction at 10:30 A.M., and 30-Year Bond Auction at 12:00 P.M.

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On the Corn Front Brownfield News reports Illinois farmer says corn & soybean planting is off to a good start as planting picked up steam across the Corn Belt this week and Illinois farmer Grant Strom says field conditions have been better than average. “We started to see the first planters really roll on Monday,” he says, “We were planting some soybeans on Monday and started corn on Tuesday. We’ll probably continue through Friday and it looks like we’re supposed to get some weather this weekend, but will dry up for next week,” he tells Brownfield with relatively mild winter in Illinois and the quick warm-up this spring timely herbicide applications are a necessity. “The weed germination and growth is definitely earlier than normal,” he says. Strom says some insect pressure could be a problem this year. “I think most fear the most frost we had was 8 inches this winter,” he says. “That only lasted about a week ahead of Christmas. Usually, I like to see a couple of feet of frost down in the soil to not only break the ground up but also to kill some of these pests.” Strom raises corn and soybeans in Knox County Illinois about 40 miles west of Peoria. Weekend weather in the Midwest is expected to see a significant drop in temperatures and wet weather with snow flurries in some areas. In the overnight electronic session the May corn is currently trading at 657 ½ which is 1 and ¼ of a cent higher. The trading range has been 659 ¼ to 654 ½.

On the Ethanol Front fuel ethanol fell by more than 4% for the week ending April 7, according to data released by the US Energy Information Administration yesterday. Weekly ending of fuel ethanol were down slightly. Ethanol production averaged 959,000 barrels per day (bpd) down 44,000 bpd compared to the 1,003 million bpd of production a week ago. When compared to the same week last year, production for the week ending was down 36,00 bpd. Weekly ending stocks for fuel ethanol fell 25, 128 million barrels, down 8,000 barrels when compared to the 25,136 million barrels a week ago. When compared to last year stocks were up 325,000 barrels. Meanwhile, “Whiskey Fungus” is spreading in Mulberry, Tennessee, a small town in Lincoln County that borders the sprawling Jack Daniels whiskey operation – the food source for alcohol-loving mold dubbed “Whiskey Fungus.” Residents are fighting this fungal spread in court, as people fear for their property value, plant life and personal health and wellbeing. We will keep you posted on this story. There were no trades or open interest in ethanol futures.

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