Markets Thursday: Corn Firmer, Beans Lower

Corn spent much of the session Thursday lower but by the close managed to rally back to close about a penny higher. Traders feel that with the big rally in beans since the USDA acres and stocks report farmers will plant more beans and less corn this year. Corn saw  very good export sales this week at 44 million bushels. It was the second day in a row corn closed above the 100-day moving average. July corn did close just under overhead resistance at $378. It sure would be nice to put in a weekly close above that!

Beans seemed to struggle Thursday, eventually closing 7-8 cents lower. A pull back would not be a surprise given the big rally we have seem lately. Export sales for beans were solid at almost 18 million bushels. We are only 7 percent behind last year's pace. The NOPA Crush data will be released today. The average trade guess is 156.248 million bushel.