Early Friday corn prices are 4 to 5 cents higher than they went home on Thursday.  Futures ended Thursday with gains of 4 ½ to 9 cents across most contracts. Weakness in the US dollar has been helpful to the bulls. Some precip is expected to make its way across the US over the next week, possibly slowing the so far (through last Sunday at least) rapid planting pace. 

There were 441 contracts delivered against May corn overnight, with ADMIS on both sides (customers vs. house), and a JPM customers the largest stopper. 

The weekly Export Sales report showed 758,466 MT in corn bookings during the week ending on April 25. That was down 41.7% from last week and on the low side of estimates. Japan was the top buyer of 267,400 MT, with 190,800 MT sold to Mexico. New crop sales were just 33,658 MT in that week. 

Monthly export data from Census showed 5.89 MMT (232 mbu) of corn shipped during March. That was a 19.78% increase on the same month last year and the largest monthly total since last May. Distillers exports were 1.055 MMT in March, a 10-year high, with ethanol shipments at 159.3 million gallons, the largest in 4 years. 

StoneX raised their Brazilian corn crop production total to 125.6 MMT, 1.37 MMT above their previous number. As for the Argentina crop, the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange slashed 3 MMT from their projection to 46.5 MMT, citing poor weather and stunt disease caused by insect issues.  USDA was still at 55 MMT in April. Harvest was 22.1% complete in the BAGE report.

May 24 Corn  closed at $4.52, up 8 3/4 cents, currently up 4 1/4 cents

Nearby Cash  was $4.38 7/8, up 8 5/8 cents,

Jul 24 Corn  closed at $4.59 3/4, up 9 cents, currently 4 3/4 cents

Dec 24 Corn  closed at $4.79 1/2, up 6 3/4 cents, currently 4 cents

New Crop Cash  was $4.43 1/2, up 7 1/4 cents,