Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ended mixed on Friday as traders awaited news on trade talks between Washington and Beijing that could accelerate Chinese imports of US farm goods. CBOT March corn sagged 1/4 cent to $3.75-1/4 per bushel. May corn rose 1/4 cent to $3.84-1/2 per bushel. US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he expects to meet China's leader, Xi Jinping, soon and said they may nail down the final points of a trade deal.

Traders hope China may agree to buy US corn as part of progress toward a trade deal. However, they want to see confirmation of such purchases. The USDA pegged 2019/20 corn ending stocks at 1.650 billion bushels, down from 1.735 billion bushels in 2018/19.

Copyright Reuters, 2019