US MIDDAY: corn mixed

Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were mixed in choppy dealings early on Thursday ahead of the release early Friday of USDA's June plantings and quarterly stocks reports, traders said.
At 10:21 am CDT (1521 GMT), CBOT corn was down 1 to up 5-1/4 cents per bushel, with July down 1/2 at $3.43-1/4 per bushel. New-crop December was down 1/4 at $3.61-3/4.
Traders said UBS Warburg bought 300 December and Man Financial sold 200 December.
Position-squaring was noted before the release on Friday of USDA's plantings report and a larger-than-expected number for corn in USDA's weekly export sales report gave corn futures some underlying support. Oat futures were 1/4 to 2 cents per bushel lower, with July down 1/2 at $2.60 per bushel.