CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade corn futures settled higher on Thursday, with the bellwether September contract touching a three-month top on worries about stressful crop weather in the US Midwest and short-covering a day ahead of monthly supply/demand reports due from the US Department of Agriculture, traders said.

Hot and dry weather over the next 10 days is expected to significantly increase dryness and crop stress across the central and southern Midwest, space technology company Maxar said in a daily weather note.

Ahead of the USDA's monthly supply/demand reports on Friday, analysts on average expect the government to lower its forecasts of US 2020/21 corn production and ending stocks.