CBOT corn ticks higher as crop tour results awaited

CHICAGO, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ended higher on Monday after spending the session seesawing as industry players awaited the results of this week's annual Pro Farmer crop tour in the U.S. Midwest, traders said.

• The crop tour will estimate corn yields and gauge soybean production potential across seven U.S. states after forecasts by the U.S. Agriculture Department last week of a record-large U.S. corn crop.

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture in its weekly crop progress report is expected to rate 71% of the corn crop as being in good or excellent shape as of August 17, down from 72% last week, according to the average of nine analysts' estimates.

• Expectations that the closely-watched tour will show a large U.S. corn harvest also weakened corn futures.

• Corn remained under pressure from favorable U.S. weather and concerns over low export demand as trade tensions between the U.S. and top buyer China continued.

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday confirmed private sales of 124,000 metric tons of new-crop U.S. corn to undisclosed destinations.

• Actively traded CBOT December corn futures CZ25 ended 1-1/4 cents higher at $4.06-1/2 per bushel.