Active harvest of the US corn crop continued to weigh on Chicago Board of Trade corn futures early on Friday as new contract lows were notched for the fifth consecutive day, traders said.

At 10:10 am CDT (1510 GMT), CBOT corn was down 1/4 to 1 cent per bushel, with December down 1/2 at $1.97-1/4 per bushel. The new contract low for December is $1.97, below the previous low of $1.97-1/2 that was set on Thursday.

Technical support in the December contract at $1.97-1/2 was broken, driving the contract to its new low. Resistance was at $1.98-1/2.

Copyright Reuters, 2005