CBOT corn ends higher, hovers near one-year peak

CHICAGO, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ended higher on Wednesday, hovering near a one-year top as traders kept adjusting to a tighter supply outlook from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) last week and worried about Argentine crop weather.

• CBOT benchmark corn futures Cv1 settled up 4-1/4 cents at $4.78-3/4 per bushel but stayed below Tuesday's top of $4.79-3/4, the highest on a continuous chart of the most-active corn contract since December 2023.

• The market is still digesting last week's USDA reports in which the government lowered estimates of the 2024 U.S. corn and soybean harvests and tightened its forecasts of ending stocks for both crops.

• In South America, some forecasts called for weekend rains that should benefit crop areas of Argentina that have struggled with hot and dry weather, but dry conditions could rebuild later this month, the Commodity Weather Group said in a client note.

• The U.S. Energy Information Administration said weekly production of corn-based ethanol fell in the latest week to 1.095 million barrels per day while stockpiles rose to 25.008 million barrels, the highest since late April. EIA/S

• Ahead of Thursday's weekly USDA export sales report, traders expected the government to report U.S. corn export sales in the week ended Jan. 9 at 500,000 to 1,000,000 metric tons.

(Reporting by Julie Ingwersen; Editing by Richard Chang)

((Julie.ingwersen@thomsonreuters.com; 1-313-484-5283; Reuters Messaging: julie.ingwersen.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))