May 24, 2007

 

CBOT Corn Review on Wednesday: Mostly higher, new-crop leads on spreads

 

 

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures settled mostly higher Wednesday in choppy trading as light bear market spreading supported the new-crop contracts and weighed on the nearby months late in the session, a floor analyst said.

 

July corn slipped 1 cent to US$3.68 1/2 per bushel, September settled 1/4 cent higher at US$3.71 1/2, and December gained 1 1/4 cents to US$3.70 1/2.

 

Spillover from stronger overnight prices helped provide initial support, the analyst said. However, trading was modest during the session as participants were cautious about putting positions on ahead of the long Memorial Day weekend, he added.

 

Market direction over the near-term depends on the weather system predicted to move through the eastern U.S. corn belt this weekend and whether it provides moisture to the crop, said Bill Nelson, associate vice president with AG Edwards & Sons.

 

Despite the uncertainty surrounding the forecasts, the market was unable to establish lasting momentum in either direction on the absence of other fresh fundamental news, a floor trader said.

 

Price direction Thursday depends on the overnight weather forecasts as well as Thursday's export sales report, Nelson said.

 

Analysts expect U.S. weekly corn export sales between 800,000 and 1.2 million metric tonnes for the week ended May 10.

 

On daily open auction charts, July corn remained above its 200-day moving average, but below most other moving averages. December also finished beneath most major moving averages.

 

In open auction trades, Fimat bought 1,000 December and sold 400 July.

 

Commodity fund buying was estimated at 1,000 contracts.

 

Oat futures settled higher as fund buying provided support for the market, a floor trader said. The funds helped push prices above moving averages on daily technical charts with July trading to its highest level since mid-April.

 

July oats gained 7 1/4 cents to US$2.76 1/2 per bushel while December rose 3 cents to US$2.64.

 

Ethanol futures ended mixed in thin activity. June ethanol settled 0.005 cents higher to 2.155 per gallon and July fell 4.8 cents to US$2.055.

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to release the weekly export sales report for the period ending May 17 at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT) Thursday.