CBOT corn ends down as dollar firms, US harvest expands

CHICAGO, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ended lower on Wednesday on profit-taking, seasonal harvest pressure and an uptick in the dollar, traders said.

• CBOT December corn CZ25 ended down 2-3/4 cents at $4.26-3/4 per bushel, turning lower after matching Tuesday's two-month high of $4.31-1/4 a bushel.

• Farmers are in the early stages of harvesting a bumper U.S. corn crop. The crop was 7% harvested as of Sunday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said this week.

• An uptick in the U.S. dollar .DXY weighed on grains ahead of the Federal Reserve's widely anticipated interest rate cut. A firmer dollar tends to make U.S. products less competitive globally. MKTS/GLOB

• The U.S. Energy Information Administration said weekly production of corn-based ethanol fell in the latest week to 1.055 million barrels per day, the lowest weekly tally since May, while stockpiles fell slightly to 22.602 million barrels. EIA/S

• Ahead of the USDA's weekly export sales report on Thursday, analysts expected the government to report export sales of U.S. corn in the week ended September 11 at 500,000 to 1,900,000 metric tons.