December corn opened 7 3/4 cents lower on the day at 588 1/4 and established an early range of 581 1/4 to 592. The December contract traded in a fairly broad range on both sides of the opening price in the early minutes of the session. It remained within that early range into early mid session before making a new low on the day. The USDA released its weekly Export Sales Report prior to the open and the corn numbers were somewhat better than trade expectations. Net sales for corn came in at 303,000 tonnes for the current marketing year which ends on August 31st. Net sales were 543,800 tonnes for the next marketing year for a total of 846,800 tonnes for the two crop years. As of August 21, cumulative corn sales for 2008/2009 (next year) have reached 17.2% of the USDA forecast versus a 5 year average of 13.4%. Sales of 783,000 tonnes are needed each week to reach the 2008/09 USDA forecast. The Energy Information Agency EIA) released its monthly ethanol report for June this week. It showed a minor slowing in the annualized rate of US ethanol production from corn during June. That was not considered a surprise since June was the month when December corn traded roughly between 630 and 800 which sharply reduced profitability for corn-based ethanol producers. The annualized rate of usage in June was 3.203 billion bushels compared to 3.274 in May.