The corn market is seeing some support from a move by the Trump administration to boost corn ethanol usage-a move to assuage farmers who have been hurt badly by the US-China trade war. Grain traders have not reacted much to the late-week ratcheting down in trade tensions between the world's two largest economies. They are more interested in actions than in words.

Cooler weather forecasts for the Corn Belt in the next week and some longer-term forecasts for an early frost in the region may be limiting selling pressure in the grains heading into the long holiday weekend. An early frost would be especially damaging to the late-planted corn and soybean crops.

Technical charts remain bearish for the grains, which is keeping the big speculative "fund" traders playing the short side of the futures markets.