Ethanol stocks took a beating this past week as corn soared and ethanol stalled. The top losers were Pacific Ethanol and VeraSun as shares of the two companies collapsed 22% and 20%, respectively. Corn finished strong on Friday, settling 20 cents higher to $4.95 per bushel on lower-than-expected crop production, quarterly stocks, and ending stocks data. As for ethanol, prices have dropped 21 cents since hitting $2.42 per gallon on January 2nd. As a result, ethanol's crush spread has dropped significantly to $1.18.

Date	CBOT ethanol price	CBOT corn price	Crush spread
January 11th	$2.21	$4.95	$1.18
January 2nd	$2.42	$4.62	$2.15
December 18th	$2.13	$4.32	$1.66
December 15th	$2.08	$4.38	$1.44
December 10th	$1.88	$4.17	$1.09
November 19th	$1.81	$3.94	$1.12
October 16th	$1.61	$3.74	$.77
September 1st	$1.54	$3.69	$.62