Chicago Board of Trade corn futures fell to contract lows on Thursday in sympathy with another rout on Wall Street tied to uncertainty about economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Softening profit margins for end-users of corn, including producers of corn-based ethanol fuel and livestock feeders, added to bearish sentiment, analysts said.

CBOT May corn settled down 8-3/4 cents at $3.65-3/4 per bushel after dipping to $3.65, a contract low and the cheapest price for a most-active corn futures contract on a continuous chart since September 12. Contract lows were set in nearly all corn futures contract months. Traders shrugged off bullish corn export data from the US Department of Agriculture. The government reported export sales of old-crop corn in the week ended March 5 at nearly 1.6 million tonnes (old- and new-crop years combined), above a range of trade expectations for 600,000 to 1.3 million tonnes.

Argentina's Buenos Aires Grains Exchange left its estimate of the country's 2019/20 corn harvest unchanged at 50 million tonnes, while lowering its soybean crop estimate after a hot and dry spell.