CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) corn futures ended on a flat note on Friday as traders squared up their positions before the three-day US holiday weekend and the market struggled with a dearth of fresh news on the US-China trade talks.

CBOT March corn closed unchanged at $3.74-3/4 per bushel on Friday. It ended the week up 1/2-cent, the first weekly gain in four weeks.

US markets including the Chicago Board of Trade will be closed on Monday in observance of Presidents Day. Trade in CBOT grains will resume Monday at 7 p.m. CST (0100 GMT) for trades dated Tuesday.

Traders said the corn markets were being pressured by some analysts predicting that US farmers will plant as much as 2.5 million more corn acres this spring, at a time when ethanol producers are expected to reduce their demand.

But increasing exports is helping to curtail corn’s losses, traders said.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Friday that private exporters sold 205,744 tonnes of US corn for delivery to unknown destinations during the 2018-19 marketing year that began September 1, 2018.

South Korea’s largest feedmaker Nonghyup Feed Inc (NOFI) bought about 69,000 tonnes of corn in an international tender that closed on Friday, European traders said. The seller was believed to be trading house Cargill.

The United States and China will resume trade talks next week in Washington with time running short to ease their bruising trade war.—Reuters