CBOT corn ends firm on short covering, technical buying

CHICAGO, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade corn futures firmed on Monday in a short-covering and technical rebound from losses in the prior session, although gains were limited by the ongoing harvest of a likely record-large U.S. crop, analysts said.

• CBOT December corn CZ25 settled 2-3/4 cents higher at $4.21-3/4 per bushel. The contract held chart support at its 50-day moving average but hit overhead technical resistance at its 20- and 100-day averages.

• Recent dry weather allowed U.S. farmers to accelerate harvesting of what is forecast to be a record-large corn crop.

• The U.S. corn harvest was estimated to be 29% finished as of Sunday, according to an average of nine analysts polled by Reuters. The U.S. Department of Agriculture normally releases its weekly crop progress estimate on Monday afternoon, but the report will not be issued due to the government shutdown.

• The USDA on Monday said 1,599,941 metric tons of U.S. corn were inspected for export in the week ended October 2, near the high end of trade estimates for 1.4 million to 1.65 million tons.

• Brazil's planting of its first corn crop for the 2025/26 season reached 40% of the expected area as of last Thursday, the highest level for the date since the 2012/13 season, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said on Monday.

• Brazil exported 7.56 million metric tons of corn in September, up from 6.42 million tons in the same month last year, according to government data released on Monday.