June 16, 2007

 

CBOT Corn Review on Friday: Settles higher on weather concerns, soy rally

 

 

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures settled higher Friday, buoyed by continued dry weather forecasts in the near term with uncertainty regarding longer-term forecasts later next week adding to upside momentum, analysts said.

 

July corn settled 9 1/2 cents higher to US$4.19 per bushel, September rose 8 1/2 cents to US$4.26, and December rallied 6 3/4 cents to US$4.24 1/4.

 

Speculative buying added to the advances with bull spreading keying gains in the nearby months, an analyst said.

 

The weather is the key and any other negative news will not have an impact until it rains in the U.S. Midwest, the analyst said.

 

News that Informa Economics estimated U.S. corn acreage at 90.724 million acres, above the 90.454 million estimated by the USDA in March led to light profit-taking, but the overriding feature remains the weather, a commission house analyst said.

 

Higher prices for soybeans added to corn market firmness with light unwinding of wheat-corn spreads also a supportive factor, the analyst said. November soybeans rallied 19 3/4 cents to US$8.80 3/4.

 

Market direction Monday will be weather dominated and depend on the overnight forecasts Sunday, the commission house analyst said.

 

In open auction trading, ADM Investor Services bought 500 July and JP Morgan sold 800 July and 600 December.

 

Commodity fund buying was estimated at 6,000 contracts.

 

In options trading, Tenco bought 2,000 September US$4.00 puts and sold 2,000 December US$4.90 calls.

 

On daily technical charts, July traded at its highest level since mid-March.

 

Oat futures settled unchanged to higher as commercial interests bought July and sold December, a floor trader said. Trading activity was light the trader added.

 

July oats rose 1 1/2 cents to US$2.92 per bushel and December settled unchanged at US$2.92.

 

Ethanol futures ended mixed in thin trade. July ethanol settled unchanged at US$2.049 per gallon and August slipped 1 cent to US$2.01.

 

On Friday afternoon, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is scheduled to release the commitments of traders report for the period ended June 12.

 

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is scheduled to release the weekly export inspections report at 11 a.m. EDT and the weekly crop progress report at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT).