US old-crop corn futures rose 1.3 percent on Tuesday morning, their third straight day of gains, on worries that supplies will run thin before harvest replenishes storage bins and grain elevators, traders said. New-crop December corn also rose, but gains were muted on expectations that farmers will plant the largest area with the grain in 75 years as projected by the US government, setting the stage for what could be a record harvest in the fall.
At 10:26 a.m. CDT (1526 GMT), CBOT May corn was up 8-3/4 cents at $6.63-3/4 a bushel while the new-crop December contract was 1 cent higher at $5.46 a bushel. The July/December corn spread has widened by 40 percent since the USDA's plantings report was released on Friday morning. CBOT May soyabeans were up 9 cents at $14.30 a bushel.