February 2, 2008

 

CBOT Corn Review on Friday: Ends mixed in choppy trade

 

 

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures settled mixed Friday, unable to maintain moderate gains set earlier as buying interest faded and outside market weakness led to pre-weekend profit-taking, an analyst said.

 

March corn slipped 3/4 cent lower to US$5.00 1/2 per bushel, while December ended up 3 1/4 cents at US$5.19.

 

Corn rallied at the start of the session on technical buying and another rally in wheat futures, the analyst said. MGE March spring wheat futures set another all-time high at US$14.03 per bushel, the highest wheat futures price ever recorded.

 

Sharp losses in crude oil helped cap the upside in corn and steep declines in gold futures after an early strong rally also added downside pressure, a trader said.

 

March gold, which traded as high as US$939.20 per ounce, ended down US$17.30 at US$911.20. March crude oil settled at US$88.96 per barrel, down US$2.79.

 

Profit-taking ahead of the weekend and after Thursday's rally also limited the gains, with a pullback in CBOT wheat from higher levels contributing to late weakness, the trader said.

 

Deferred months finished higher as speculative interest remains "strong" in the new crop corn given the need to maintain acreage, a commission house analyst said. However, in general the grains retreated on the "outside" market weakness, the analyst said.

 

In open-auction trading, commodity fund buying was estimated at 2,000 contracts.

 

Market direction Monday will be determined by the inflationary markets and equities as participants are watching financial markets in general, an electronic trader said.

 

On daily technical charts, March remained above its major moving averages, but finished nearer session lows.

 

In options trading, MF Global bought 10,000 March US$4.60 calls and sold 10,000 US$4.30 calls.

 

Oat futures ended weaker as late selling near the close erased earlier gains from spec buying, a trader said. Commercial selling on a scale up basis also limited the upside, the trader said.

 

March oats finished 6 1/4 cents lower at US$3.23 per bushel.

 

Ethanol futures closed lower. February ethanol closed down 1 cent at US$2.145 per gallon while March also ended 1 cent lower at US$2.09.

 

Friday afternoon the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is scheduled to release the weekly commitment of traders' report for the period ending Jan. 29.