Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ended higher on Thursday, buoyed by strength in soyabeans and renewed optimism for a thaw in US-China trade relations, traders said. CBOT December corn settled up 7-1/4 cents at $3.67-1/4 per bushel. Soyabeans soared on news that Chinese importers bought at least 10 cargoes of US soyabeans on Thursday, or about 600,000 tonnes, for shipment from Pacific Northwest export terminals.

Beijing earlier on Thursday said Chinese companies have started to inquire about prices for US agricultural goods purchases. The USDA cut its US corn production estimate to 13.799 billion bushels, from 13.901 billion last month.

Copyright Reuters, 2019