April 14, 2009

 

CBOT Corn Review on Monday: Ends weaker on mostly bearish outside markets

 

 

Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed modestly lower but nearer the session high Monday.

 

Mostly bearish outside markets helped to keep corn below unchanged throughout the trading session. U.S. stock indexes and crude oil prices were weaker.

 

May corn closed down 2 3/4 cents at US$3.87 1/2.

 

Corn futures did creep up from the session low of US$3.83, basis May futures, as the day wore on. The gains in soybeans and notions of wet weather in the corn belt causing corn-planting delays helped push corn up from session lows, said an analyst. Some bargain-hunting buying was also seen, as corn prices have backed well off from last week's highs, said Brian Hoops, with Midwest Market Solutions.

 

A weaker U.S. dollar versus the other major currencies also somewhat limited selling interest in corn futures, said another analyst.

 

Traders are keeping an eye on corn belt weather. Weather in the U.S. corn belt is becoming more important by the day, as planting season is soon approaching. Rain showers are forecast for the central and southern corn belt to start the week, and are expected to continue into Tuesday. Mostly dry conditions will prevail Wednesday, with showers re-developing in the western corn belt on Thursday. Friday is forecast to be dry in the corn belt. The wet weather will delay corn planting efforts in the south, according to Meteorlogix weather.

 

Any sustained wet corn belt weather early in the planting season is likely to be bullish for new-crop corn, as farmers could switch intended corn acres to soybeans due to the optimum corn-planting window closing, said Victor Lespinasse, veteran market analyst with www.grainanalyst.com.

 

Monday afternoon's crop progress report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will be closely scrutinized by traders. However, it's not believed a U.S. corn-planting figure will be issued this week.

 

USDA weekly grain export inspections data showed corn inspections at 31.428 million bushels versus 44.498 million last week.

 

In the latest weekly commitment of traders report issued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, commercial corn futures traders increased their net short positions by 8,841 contracts, to 509,808. Meantime, large speculators increased their net long positions in corn by 1,680 contracts, to 96,099 contracts. Index funds also increased their net-long positions in corn by 4,233 contracts, to 293,981 contracts in the latest reporting week.