Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade ended weak on Thursday, with new contract lows set for the fourth straight day, amid bearish export news and active harvest of a big US corn crop, traders said.

CBOT corn closed 1/4 to 1/2 cents per bushel lower. December was down 1/2 at $1.97-3/4 per bushel. The new contract low for December is $1.97-1/2 per bushel, below the previous low of $1.98 which was set on Wednesday.

USDA early Thursday said export sales of US corn last week totalled 718,400 tonnes, below trade estimates for 1 million to 1.2 million tonnes. Exports overnight included news South Korea bought 55,000 tonnes of US corn.

Copyright Reuters, 2005