Corn (P) Futures PricesFriday, May 18th, 2012

Corn futures are trading 2 to 6 cents higher this morning. They were up 55 cents per bushel last week in the old crop July. The dollar is stronger vs. the euro following the G8 meeting. The main story last week was the rally in wheat, which takes it out of the feed rations and places more reliance on corn. The weekly CFTC report showed Managed Money had decreased their net corn long by 34,656 contracts as of last Tuesday. The CME received CFTC approval to offer expanded electronic trading hours in its CBOT grain and oilseed futures and options. Hours are now 5 pm CDT to 2 pm CDT from Sunday evening to Friday afternoon. That means there are no opening calls for grains this morning, because they are already trading. Closes are still based on pit prices at 1:15 pm even though the electronic market keeps trading until 2 pm CDT. Chinese futures are 8 cents higher.