After the weekend break, corn is trading 2 to 7 cents higher.Buying is focused in the March contract. Front month corn futures closed with double digit gains on Friday, and set new contract highs for March and May. Preliminary open interest rose 11,594 contracts on the rally, suggesting net new buying interest. For the first month of 2021 March corn futures gained 63 cents. Dalian futures (China) have dropped sharply since mid-January, presumably due to the coming onslaught of imported US corn. CFTC’s weekly data releasee showed managed money funds extended their net long by 14,734 contracts to 364,229 as of Tuesday night. Commercials continued to unwind their record net short, lowering it 10,855 contracts on a 12,896 increase to longs. On net, commercials were 753,073 contracts net short on 1/26.  Double crop corn planting in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso is the slowest since 2011, due to delays in taking off the soybeans. One estimate has is 2.1% complete.

--- provided by Brugler Marketing & Management