Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ended mixed on Thursday as early spillover support from a sharply higher crude oil market faded on continued worries about grain demand amid the coronavirus pandemic, traders said.
CBOT May corn settled down 1-1/4 cents at $3.33-1/2 per bushel after falling to within a penny of its contract low. All other contracts either matched previous contract lows or set new ones.
Corn rose to session highs as crude oil markets rallied after US President Donald Trump said he had brokered a deal with top crude producers Russia and Saudi Arabia to cut output and arrest an oil price rout that has hammered the ethanol sector. Numerous ethanol plants, users of more than a third of the US corn crop, have slowed or halted production amid falling energy prices.
Grain traders remain concerned about weaker demand as the coronavirus crisis has triggered higher US unemployment and threatened to tips the global economy into recession.
Weekly export sales of corn totaled 1.096 million tonnes, according to the US Department of Agriculture. That was in line with market forecasts that ranged from 700,000 tonnes to 1.3 million tonnes.
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