Chicago corn falls on profit-taking from three-year highs

Business Recorder reported that Chicago Board of Trade corn futures slipped on Thursday as traders locked in gains after prices reached a three-year peak. At 0245 GMT, the most-traded contract was down 0.3%, changing hands at $5.42 a bushel, while wheat and soybeans moved higher. Doubts about hostilities around the Black Sea, a key grain export zone, kept the market supported, traders said.

Recent strikes have brought almost all grain loadings through Black Sea and Azov ports to a halt, ports that previously handled 70% of Russian grain exports. Russia's deputy foreign minister, Alexander Grushko, said on Wednesday that Moscow sees no basis for reviving the grain deal while both countries keep striking each other's grain facilities. Ukraine's largest farm union, UAC, cautioned exporters against counting on a quick reopening of its deepwater ports and urged them to use other options.

Separately, the US Department of Agriculture recorded daily private sales of 202,000 metric tons of American soybeans bound for China. Ahead of Thursday's weekly export sales report, traders had forecast US old-crop corn export sales of as much as 200,000 metric tons for the seven days to August 27.