Chicago Board of Trade corn futures closed firm on Tuesday, recovering from early weakness on technical buying, traders said. Gains were kept in check by the US Agriculture Department's report on Monday afternoon that crop conditions were better than expected.
USDA said that 57% of the US corn crop was rated good-to-excellent as of September 22, up 2 percentage points from a week earlier and topping market expectations of 55%. The benchmark CBOT December corn contract found technical support at its 10-day moving average.