CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ended mostly higher on Monday after a choppy session as strength in soybean futures tied to worrisome South American weather forecasts overshadowed pressure from a firmer dollar, traders said.

• CBOT May corn settled up 1-1/2 cents at $5.47 per bushel while new-crop December corn ended flat at $4.81-1/2, paring gains after reaching a life-of-contract high at $4.85-3/4.

• Contract highs were set in all corn futures months other than the front three contracts.

  • The US Department of Agriculture reported export inspections of US corn in the latest week at 1,544,460 tonnes, in line with trade expectations for 1.2 million to 1.8 million tonnes.

• Ahead of the USDA's monthly USDA supply/demand report on Tuesday, analysts surveyed by Reuters on average expect the government to lower its forecasts of US and global 20202/1 corn ending stocks.

• However, traders are also looking ahead to the USDA's big US planting intentions and quarterly stocks reports on March 31.