January 21, 2006

 

CBOT Corn Review on Friday: Commercial support limits fund sales

 

 

Corn futures traded at the Chicago Board of Trade ended little changed Friday in choppy trading as commercial buying offset fund selling in an otherwise featureless session, sources said.

 

March corn ended unchanged at US$2.05 per bushel, May corn settled 1/4 cent higher at US$2.15, and July corn finished unchanged at US$2.23 3/4.

 

"Considering the fund selling, corn acted pretty good," said Vic Lespinasse of AG Edwards & Sons. The other markets on the floor were all higher for most of the day and corn would probably been higher, except for the fund selling. The commercial buying helped underpin the market. Beyond that, there wasn't much of a feature, he added.

 

Commodity fund selling was estimated at 12,000 contracts.

 

Strong weekly export sales failed to make a positive impression. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported corn exports sales for the week ended Jan. 12 at 1.222 million metric tonnes, above the 750,000-1.1 million tonnes expected by analysts.

 

The export number was solid, but importers are in no rush to buy, with plenty of supply, a floor analyst said.

 

Little impact was noted from news that South Korea had purchased 165,000 metric tonnes of U.S. corn, with the business described as routine, by traders.

 

The decision by Japan to ban imports of U.S. beef had little effect on the market. It's not a big deal, its impact is minimal, one floor trader said.

 

Buyers on Friday included Cargill, which bought 2,000 March, Citigroup bought 1,000 March, O'Connor bought 3,500 March, Tenco bought 1,200 May, and UBS bought 500 July and 200 May.

 

Sellers Friday included Cargill, which sold 1,000 May, ADM sold 500 March, Calyon sold 500 March, JP Morgan sold 1,000 March and 500 December, Fimat sold 1,500 March, Goldenberg-Hehmeyer sold 1,000 March, UBS sold 1,700 March, Man Financial sold 1,700 March, 400 May and 400 July, and the Refco division of Man Financial sold 2,000 March and 1,500 May.

 

In spread trading, Cargill spread 4,800 March-May.

 

Oat futures settled mixed with most-active March contract settling 3 cents higher US$1.90 3/4.

 

Ethanol futures ended mixed. The April contract did not trade and settled 2 cents higher at US$2.42 per gallon.

 

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is scheduled to release the weekly export inspections report on Monday at 10:00 a.m. CST.