Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were firm at midsession Friday, trying to keep up with the rally in soyabeans, traders said. Even so, the corn/soyabean spread remained out of whack with soyabeans climbing to a near three-month high and corn up less than a penny. Speculators were worried about carrying short positions in soyabeans over the long US holiday weekend amid worries about dryness in Southern Brazil's crop region. Corn has a tough time showing any price recovery given the huge US corn supply and expectations that it will grow if farmers increase their corn plantings this spring at the expense of soyabeans on fears about Asian soya rust disease.

March corn was up 3/4 cent at $2 per bushel, with deferreds up 1/2 to 3/4 cent.

Copyright Reuters, 2005