January 10, 2019 Drew Johnson Grain Marketing Specialist Corn: steady Corn continues its sideways trek trading in a 5 cents range both nearby and new crop. Lack of any export confirmations and lower ethanol production will keep weighing on this market. Ethanol production fell to one million barrels/day. This is 11,000 barrels/day lower than last week, thus putting production at a 37-week low. Ethanal supplies rose by 92,000 barrels to 23.254 million barrels. CONAB, a public company under Brazil’s Ag ministry, will release their predictions on corn South American corn production this morning. Expectations are above the 91.1 mmt they predicted in December. March corn is running into resistance at $3.85 and holding support around $3.80. December corn is finding resistance at $4.05 and holding support around $4.01. Soybeans: 5 lower After Tuesday’s correction, soybeans came back to trendline, but are having a hard time trading above that due to farmer selling. News that US/China trade negotiations ended with no clear path insight, other than China is reported to have pledged to purchase more US Ag products. This is good news, but the market has already traded that headline and without any export sales confirmations, it will be difficult for this market to achieve any upside. Brazil’s CONAB will release their soybean production estimates. Average trade guess is that it will be lowered from 120 mmt to 117 mmt, with some thinking it could be lower and in the range of 110-115 mmt. Technically speaking March soybeans are hitting resistance at $9.25 with November soybeans finding resistance at $9.63. Wheat: MPLS: steady. KC: 1 lower Wheat mixed this morning after news that Russia sold 420,000 metric tons of wheat to Egypt. Algeria also bought 550,000 metric tons of optional origin wheat, and US hard red winter is in that equation. Minneapolis & Kansas City Wheat are having a hard time getting above their respective 50-day moving averages of $5.73 and $5.06 March futures.