Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ended lower on Thursday in rangebound trade, pressured by technical selling and expectations for large South American harvests, traders said. CBOT March corn settled down 3-1/2 cents at $3.79-1/2 per bushel, staying inside of Wednesday's trading range.

The US Department of Agriculture reported export sales of US corn in the week ended Feb. 6 at 968,900 tonnes (old and new crop years combined), in line with trade expectations. Argentina's Rosario grains exchange on Wednesday raised its forecast of the country's corn crop to 50 million tonnes, from 49 million previously.

Traders noted declines in world equity markets, which were on the defensive as a sharp rise in the death toll from the coronavirus in China stoked concern about fresh economic fallout from the outbreak.