July 3, 2007

 

CBOT Corn Review on Monday: Ends mostly lower in choppy trade

 

 

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures settled mostly lower in choppy activity Monday after the market attempted to consolidate since the recent sharp declines set in the past two weeks in June, analysts said.

 

July corn rose 1 cent to US$3.30 1/2 per bushel, September corn slipped 1/4 cent to US$3.39 3/4 and December corn declined 3/4 cent to US$3.50.

 

Corn was being pulled both higher and lower by the other markets and that hampered the consolidation effort, a commercial analyst said.

 

Soybeans and soybean meal acted as support for corn prices, but lower wheat prices acted as a drag on values, he said.

 

While August soybeans rose 15 1/4 cents to US$8.71 per bushel and August soybean meal gained US$6.70 per tonne to US$237.90, September wheat closed 13 3/4 cents lower to US$5.83 1/4 per bushel.

 

Mostly favorable near-term weather limited buying interest, and midday forecasts were not changed much from previous forecasts, which also kept buyers on the sidelines, a trader said.

 

Corn gave market participants a clear signal after reports on Friday that it is beginning to divorce itself from the activity in the other pits, a commission house analyst said.

 

Trading activity was quiet compared to Friday, with some participants evening up positions ahead of the midweek holiday, the trader said.

 

Without any weather problems during pollination, the acreage increase points to a potentially large U.S. corn crop and that limited buying interest as well, the commission house analyst said.

 

Deliveries against the July contract remained heavy but had little impact, analysts said. Deliveries posted against the July CBOT future were 1,683 contracts.

 

Large issuers included the customer account of Man Professional Clearing, which issued 714 contracts, and the customer account of Man Financial, which issued 373 contracts. Large stoppers included the customer account of Man Financial, which stopped 764 contracts, and the customer account of UBS Securities, which stopped 505 contracts. The last trade assigned was June 19.

 

Corn export inspections were released during the session and had no impact. Corn inspected for export totaled 34.188 million bushels for the week ended June 28, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported, within the 30-38 million bushels expected by analysts.

 

Corn's price direction Tuesday depends on the crop progress report and the overnight weather forecasts, an E-CBOT trader said.

 

Analysts expect corn crop conditions to be unchanged to three percentage points higher for the period ending July 1. Last week, 73% of the U.S. corn crop was rated in good-excellent condition

 

On day session technical charts, electronically traded December corn traded an inside day, within the highs and lows set Friday, and it remained below its major moving averages.

 

In options trading, ADM Investor Services bought 2,000 December US$4.70 calls, and sold 2,000 December US$3.60 calls and 2,000 December US$3.50 puts.

 

Oat futures ended mixed, with the July contract settling sharply higher as the absence of deliveries posted against it boosted prices higher, a trader said. Deferred month contracts were little changed on the lack of fresh news, he added.

 

July oats settled 12 1/2 cents higher at US$2.91 per bushel, and December gained 1 3/4 cents to US$2.67.

 

Ethanol futures settled mixed in quiet trade. July ethanol rose 4 cents to US$1.99 per gallon, and August also ended up 4 cents to US$1.94.

 

The USDA is scheduled to release the weekly crop progress report on Monday at 4:00 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT).