Corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade were higher early on Thursday on solid demand for corn and on speculative buying mainly stemming from buy orders placed electronically, traders said.
"Most of it's screen trade, only scattered buying in here, and there was mixed commercial selling at the highs," a pit source said. At 10:14 am CST (1614 GMT), corn was up 3/4 to 4-1/2 cents per bushel, with December up 3-1/2 at $3.61-3/4 per bushel.
Traders and analysts said speculative buying was expected to continue amid outlooks for dwindling stocks of corn as demand from the export, livestock and ethanol sectors remains brisk.