March Corn finished up 4 1/2 at 356, 6 off the high and 2 1/2 up from the low. December Corn closed up 4 at 391. This was 2 up from the low and 5 off the high.

The corn market traded higher overnight and made further gains through mid morning of the day session. Prices then eased back to near the overnight levels into early afternoon. Traders said that cash markets remained quiet this week despite the higher prices. Wintry weather and predictions of storms in parts of the Midwest during the first half of this week are also lowering some traders' expectations of cash movement into the middle of the week. Traders also credited today's strength to a generally positive tone in outside markets, large-scale buying by funds and evening up ahead of tomorrow's USDA supply/demand report. Traders are expecting the USDA to trim ending stocks for corn by nearly 20 million bushels from January's total of 1.764 billion bushels. The corn market has been in a major downtrend since last month's USDA reports which contained some of the biggest bearish surprises in recent memory according to one analyst. This week's export inspections for corn were just 27.102 million bushels for corn which was down substantially from last week's total of 39.447 million. Total inspections to-date stand at 33.8% of the USDA's projected exports for 2009/10 versus a 5-year average of 41.8%. Inspections need to average 45.431 million bushels each week to reach the USDA's projection.

March Rice finished up 0.21 at 14.295, equal to the high and equal to the low.