Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ended lower on Friday, with most months hitting life-of-contract lows as mild US weather forecasts bolstered production prospects, and weekly US export sales data fell below trade expectations. CBOT December corn settled down 3-1/4 cents at $3.55-1/2 per bushel, after posting a contract low at $3.53. For the week, the December contract fell 14-1/4 cents a bushel or about 3.8%, its third weekly decline in the last four weeks.

Private analytics firm IEG Vantage raised its forecast of the average US 2019 corn yield to 169.6 bushels per acre, from 167.8 a month ago, according to an IEG client note. The US Department of Agriculture reported export sales of US corn in the week to August 29 at 250,800 tonnes (old and new crop years combined), below a range of trade expectations.

Copyright Reuters, 2019