Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were holding firm early on Thursday amid scattered and low-volume short covering following the declines on Wednesday, traders said.
Firm cash basis markets and slow farmer selling also were giving corn futures a bit of buoyancy, they said.
At 10:17 am CST (1617 GMT), CBOT corn was up 1/2 to 3/4 cent per bushel, with December up 1/2 at $1.87-1/2 per bushel. March was up 1/4 at $2.01-1/4 per bushel.
Pit sources said D.T. Trading and Tenco Inc each bought 100 March.
There was little if any bullish momentum stemming from the release early Thursday of USDA's weekly export sales report.