Corn prices have been on a solid run, up 2 to 5 cents this Friday morning to close out the week. What's driving it? Crude oil is up another $5.32, which always seems to give the grain markets a boost. Thursday's close showed most corn futures contracts up 6 to 9 and three-quarter cents, with some of the further-out contracts holding steady or up a few cents. The open interest jumped 45,500 contracts, which signals real buying interest here. Export sales data from this week was pretty impressive actually. Sales hit 2.02 million metric tons of old crop corn, nearly triple what we saw the previous week and more than double year-over-year. South Korea led the buying at 530,300 MT, while Colombia and Mexico picked up 225,000 and 224,700 MT respectively. New crop business was lighter at 154,000 MT, all heading to Japan. Brazil shipped out 1.55 million metric tons in February, up about 9% from last year though still below January's pace. Argentina's harvest is just getting going at 7.2% complete, with the crop estimate holding at 57 million metric tons. Canada's acreage intentions show corn plantings up 1.7% to 3.846 million acres if those numbers hold. Mar 26 corn closed at 4.41 and a half, up 9 and three-quarter cents, and May corn hit 4.53 and a half, also up 9 and three-quarter cents. The cash market reflected the strength too, with the national average at 4.12 and three-quarter cents, up 9 and a half cents. Pretty solid week for the grain complex overall.