CBOT May corn settled up 7-1/2 cents at $3.67 per bushel.
Ahead of the US Department of Agriculture's weekly crop progress report, analysts surveyed by Reuters expect the government to show US corn planting progress at 4 percent.
The supplement to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) weekly commitments report showed non-commercial traders trimmed their net short position to 138,510 contracts in the week to April 4. But that was still the second-largest net short since October, a factor that leaves the market vulnerable to short-covering bounces.
The USDA said private exporters sold 101,600 tonnes of US corn to unknown destinations for delivery in the 2016/17 marketing year.
The USDA reported weekly export inspections of corn in the latest week at 1,170,380 tonnes, slightly below expectations of between 1,300,000-1,600,000.
Analysts expect the USDA in its monthly supply/demand report on Tuesday to raise its forecasts of 2016/17 US and global corn ending stocks.