Corn futures were busy squaring up ahead of the Friday USDA report, closing Thursday with gains of 5 to 7 cents across the board. The CmdtyView national average Cash Corn price was up 6 cents at $4.87. 

The weekly EIA report showed ethanol production at 1.099 million barrels per day in the week of 9/4, down 11,000 bpd from the week prior. Stocks saw a 152,000 barrel increase to 25.187 million barrels, which is 10.29% above the same week last year. 

USDA will release Export Sales data on Friday, with traders looking for net cancellations of 600,000 MT to net sales of 50,000 on old crop corn sales in the last few days of the marketing year. Sales for new crop in the week ending on September 3 are seen at 1-1.9 MMT. 

A Bloomberg survey of traders shows expectations for USDA to cut yield on Friday by an average of 2.6 bpa, to an average of 178.1 bpa. Production is seen dropping 236 mbu from August to 15.777 bbu. Ending stocks for old crop are seen at down just 7 mbu to 1.938 bbu, with new crop expected to be down 142 mbu lower to 1.511 mbu. 

Sep 26 Corn  closed at $5.14, up 6 1/4 cents,

Nearby Cash  was $4.87, up 6 cents,

Dec 26 Corn  closed at $5.33 3/4, up 6 cents,

Mar 27 Corn  closed at $5.49 1/4, up 6 cents,