CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ended firmer on Friday and hit a one-year peak amid spillover support from a rally in the neighboring soybean market, traders said.

The US Department of Agriculture, in a monthly report, cut its forecasts for domestic corn production to 14.722 billion bushels from its previous estimate of 14.900 billion. Analysts had expected 14.808 billion.

The agency lowered its estimate for US corn ending stocks by 336 million bushels to 2.167 billion bushels. That was above analysts' estimates for 2.113 billion.

Analysts said the USDA will need to increase its estimate for China's corn imports. The agency kept its forecast steady from September at 7 million tonnes.

Most-active CBOT December corn ended up 8 cents at $3.95 a bushel and touched its highest price since Oct. 15, 2019.

Most-active soybean futures reached their highest price since March 2018 after USDA said domestic soy ending stocks were tighter than analysts expected.