March corn was trading 1 1/2 cents lower late in the overnight session. Outside market forces look negative today with a firm US dollar and weakness in metal and equity markets. Cash corn in central Illinois was trading 10 cents under the March contract last year at this time which is fairly normal for this time of the year. Processors are paying 27 cents premium to the March contract this year and are still not getting the quantity desired. Demand has picked up for the export market in the past week or so and ethanol plants are still eking out a small return even without the blending credits. The strong cash market and tightening supply is seen as a positive force. March corn closed sharply higher on the session yesterday and back up near the early session highs. The market has already rallied as much as 27 1/2 cents from Thursday's lows as a combination of slow producer selling, weather concerns in Argentina and improving demand indications were all seen as positive forces. The market saw solid buying support as weather concerns for Argentina and a strong cash market in the US helped to support. Parts of Argentina received less rain than expected over the weekend with coverage above 1/2 inch not as widespread as expected and this helped to support more active buying. Weekly export inspections came in at 35.19 million bushels which was right in the range of expectations. Shipments need to average 31 million bushels per week to reach the USDA projection for the year. On top of the weekly inspections, private exporters reported the sale of 152,900 tonnes of US corn to Mexico. If supply forecasts for South America continue to slide, traders see improving US exports into the spring.