CBOT corn ends firm, following strength in wheat

CHICAGO, June 18 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade corn futures rose on Wednesday, following a 4% jump in wheat futures ahead of a U.S. government holiday on Thursday.

• CBOT July corn CN25 settled up 2 cents at $4.33-1/2 per bushel.

• CBOT new-crop December corn CZ25 ended up 5-1/4 cents at $4.44 a bushel.

• The most-active July corn contract CN25 trailed the gains in deferred contracts as concerns eased about tight supplies of last year's U.S. corn harvest and as Brazil's harvest threatened to slow U.S. export sales.

• Generally benign U.S. crop weather hung over the market, muting rallies by favoring U.S. corn production prospects.

• The U.S. Energy Information Administration said weekly production of corn-based ethanol fell in the latest week to 1.109 million barrels per day, retreating from a record high set a week earlier, while stockpiles rose to 24.120 million barrels. EIA/S

• Ahead of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's weekly export sales report on Friday, analysts expected the government to report export sales of U.S. old-crop corn in the week ended June 12 at 600,000 to 1,200,000 metric tons and new-crop sales of zero to 200,000 tons.

• U.S. markets and most government offices will be closed on Thursday in observance of the Juneteenth federal holiday.