Chicago Board of Trade corn futures were mildly higher at midday as spreading turned more active and countered earlier end-week profit-taking seen after four straight days of higher closes, brokers said.
At 11:56 am (1656 GMT), CBOT corn was unchanged to up 1 cent with September up 1 cent at $2.25, trading between $2.23-1/2 and the early high at $2.27. December was up 3/4 cent at $2.35-1/2 per bushel.
Pit traders said Refco Inc had bought 500 December and 400 March by midday, Fimat bought 200 December and FC Stone bought 300 December. Caylon Financial sold 300 December by mid-session.
Caylon was a featured spreader of 1,000 December-September, while O'Connor and Co spread 600 December-September and Fimat Futures spread 1,000 September-March as spreading was active, pit brokers said.
US overnight corn export business was quiet, and Taiwan Sugar said it would tender on Wednesday for 6,000 tonnes of US corn at a tender next Wednesday, with loading September 1-15 from the Gulf or September 16-30 from the PNW.