April 6, 2007

 

CBOT Corn Review on Thursday: Ends higher on wheat, weather concerns

 

 

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures settled with moderate gains Thursday as prices were supported by spillover buying from sharply higher wheat prices and concerns that cold and wet weather next week could delay early corn planting, analysts said.

 

May corn gained 6 3/4 cents to US$3.66 per bushel, July settled 6 1/2 cents higher at US$3.78 and December rose 6 1/4 cents higher to US$3.86 3/4.

 

Wheat futures settled sharply higher on concerns that the cold and wet weather in the U.S. could possibly damage the winter wheat crop, an analyst said. May wheat settled 13 3/4 cents higher at US$4.45 per bushel.

 

Midday weather outlooks were also supportive for corn, with private forecasters expecting wet weather in the U.S. Midwest through the end of next week, the analyst added. The ground is already wet and any additional moisture plus the cold temperatures are expected to delay planting, he noted. Light technical buying also added to the gains as did commodity fund buying, a floor trader said.

 

Commodity fund buying was estimated at 8,000 contracts.

 

Weaker than expected corn export sales had little impact, a floor trader said.

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported weekly corn export sales were 660,400 metric tonnes for the week ended March 29, well below the 800,000-1.0 million tonnes expected by analysts. An analyst termed the export sales as "poor."

 

Trading volume was quiet compared to the heavy volume experienced earlier in the week, with some traders reluctant to add to new positions ahead of the long holiday weekend, several traders said.

 

The CBOT grain markets are closed Friday in observance of Good Friday.

 

Corn's price direction on Monday depends on the weekend weather forecasts, a floor analyst said.

 

On daily technical charts, May continues to fill on the upside a downside gap created between Friday and Monday's sessions but remained below most major moving averages. December corn settled above its 100-day moving average for the first time since Friday.

 

Buyers Thursday included Tenco, which bought 3,000 July.

 

UBS sold 500 December and Penson GHCO sold 700 December.

 

In options trading, RJ O'Brien sold 2,000 July US$3.80 calls and JP Morgan bought 1,000 December US$4.00 calls and sold 1,000 December US$4.50 calls.

 

Oat futures settled slightly higher Thursday, ignoring the rally in wheat as well as higher corn prices, a commission house analyst said. May oats are running up against technical resistance at US$2.80 per bushel and the market is struggling to move above it, the analyst said. Trading activity was quiet ahead of the long weekend, a floor trader said.

 

May oats settled 1/2 cent higher at US$2.76 1/2 per bushel and July gained 1 1/4 cents to US$2.83.

 

Ethanol futures settled near unchanged in quiet trading. The May contract finished unchanged at US$2.10 per gallon. June ethanol finished .005 cent higher at US$2.075.

 

On Friday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is scheduled to release the commitment of traders report for the period ending April 3.

 

On Monday, the USDA is scheduled to release the weekly export inspections at 11:00 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) and the weekly crop progress at 1600 EDT (2000 GMT).