December Corn finished down 25 1/2 at 487 1/2, 37 1/4 off the high and 2 up from the low. March Corn closed down 24 1/2 at 506 1/2. This was 1 3/4 up from the low and 36 1/4 off the high.

The corn market opened marginally lower following a higher than expected Quarterly Stocks estimate this morning. The opening loss erased gains in corn during the overnight session. The lower open quickly attracted selling by funds which are said to have increased their selling on the last trading day of the Third Quarter. Trade was also said to be active in the wheat/corn spread with wheat gaining very sharply on both corn and soybeans over the course of the day. US weather looks mostly favorable for corn harvesting through this weekend despite the possibility of scattered frosts later this week. Next week may see increased wetness in the western Corn Belt with dry conditions expected in the east. The Quarterly Grain Stocks Report was considered negative this morning with corn stocks as of September 1st pegged at 1.624 billion bushels. This is up 48 million bushels from the USDA's ending stocks estimate on the August Supply and Demand Report. The stock number was also higher than trade estimates. This implies that domestic feed usage and possibly ethanol usage was lower than what had been expected over the past three months. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) also released its monthly ethanol production estimate for July this morning. Total ethanol production for July stood at 19.042 million barrels compared to 17.544 million barrels the previous month and versus 13.051 million barrels last July. This implies that about 286.63 million bushels of corn were processed for ethanol in July which compares to an implied usage of 263.16 million bushels in June.

November Rice finished down 0.5 at 18.895, 0.305 off the high and equal to the low.