Chicago Board of Trade corn futures surged on Friday, with old-crop contracts posting a limit-up move due to a US Agriculture Department report that showed domestic supplies were tighter than expected. New-crop corn contracts also rose, but their gains were muted by a USDA report that forecast bigger-than-expected corn seedings this year.
CBOT May corn rose 6.6 percent, the biggest gain for the benchmark contract since an equal jump on October 11. The front month CBOT corn contract ended the quarter down 0.4 percent. For the week, CBOT corn also was 0.4 percent lower and closed 1.9 percent lower for March.
USDA pegged 2012 US corn acreage at 95.9 million (38.8 million hectares), above an average of analysts' estimates for 94.720 million. Quarterly stocks of corn in the US on March 1 were estimated by USDA at 6.009 billion bushels, below an average of analysts' estimates for 6.150 billion.