On the corn front Commodity News posted a story with rising new crop corn and soybean prices intensifying to a U.S. acreage duel. There will be many factors weighing in, with a lot of trade days left in January, but the 2021 corn and soybeans report that their 2021 crop is guarantees farmers are on track for a six-year high, if not seven, which should encourage an acreage boost. We are still seeing some profit taking from the recent run on the market and I would not fear the long liquidation going on at the moment. In the overnight electronic session, the March corn is currently trading at 515 ½ which is 10 ½ cents lower. The trading range has been 525 ¼ to 512 ¾.
On the ethanol Front the market is looking for a potential rise of acreage numbers and prices of corn and soybeans but also gas use for ethanol and at what price they can start firing up some plants went idle at the close of 2020. There were no trades posted in the overnight electronic session. The April ethanol settled at 1.663 and is current showing 1 bid at 1.610 and 2 offers at 1.749 with Open Interest at 45 contracts.
On the crude oil Front Last Trading Day in the February contract so all should be rolled to March positions by now. We have the API Energy Stocks at 3:30 P.M. delated a day due to the holiday. We should get plenty of news the next couple days of the changes in the Energy complex under the new administration. In the overnight electronic session, the March crude oil is currently trading at 5351 which is 53 points higher. The trading range has been 5373 to5305.
On the natural gas front, we have been down with weather prognosticators changing their timeline on arctic weather movements that go to a shift to another shift after the bull already came out of the shoots. It just seems that these changes have your traders doing window dressing on open positions geared for the summer driving season and what changes can we expect with the forecast calling for hot & dry. Well, we hope we have enough air-conditioners and outdoor water sports that were missed in the summer of 2020. In the overnight electronic session, the February natural gas is currently trading at 2.476 which is seven cents lower. The trading range has been 2.567 to 2.546.