Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ended higher on Thursday, buoyed by a surge in soyabeans after the front two corn contracts fell to life-of-contract lows, traders said. CBOT December corn settled up 3 cents at $3.49 a bushel after hitting a contract low of $3.42-1/2. Corn futures fell after the US Department of Agriculture raised its estimate of the US 2017 corn yield to 171.8 bushels per acre (bpa), up from 169.9 last month and above even the highest in a range of trade estimates.
The USDA also raised its forecast of US 2017/18 corn ending stocks to 2.340 billion bushels, from 2.335 billion in September. Fresh export demand lent light support. The USDA said private exporters in the last day sold 120,000 tonnes of US corn to Mexico, the second sale to Mexico in as many days. China's agriculture ministry lowered its estimate of the country's 2017/18 corn crop to 210.1 million tonnes, from 212.48 million last month, citing smaller-than-expected plantings.
USDA left its estimate of China's corn crop unchanged at 215 million tonnes, but in light of the Chinese government's estimate, some analysts said the USDA might lower its figure in future reports. Ahead of the USDA's weekly export sales report on Friday, analysts expected the government to report weekly corn sales of 800,000 to 1,100,000 tonnes.