August 17, 2006

 

CBOT Corn Review on Wednesday: Ends down; spillover weakness weighs

 

 

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ended with fractional losses Wednesday in choppy trading as weaker soybean and wheat futures helped erase modest advances late in the session.

 

September slipped 1/2 cent to US$2.21 1/2 cents per bushel and December also lost 1/2 cent to US$2.38. e-CBOT day session volume in December was 27,042 contracts.

 

The funds were light buyers early in the day but the weakness in the other pits helped move corn into negative territory in late trade, a floor analyst said.

 

CBOT December wheat fell 5 3/4 cents to US$3.91 1/2 per bushel, and November soybeans slipped 4 1/4 cents to US$5.65.

 

The market remains oversold and continues to consolidate after the recent price weakness, a floor analyst said. However, there was little fresh news to trade off and the weather remains favorable to the crop, he added.

 

Corn was unable to manifest a rally, a commission house broker said. The cash market was firm as farmers are reluctant to sell at these levels, but the market couldn't generate any type of momentum, he added.

 

On open auction technical charts, December gapped open higher and filled the downside gap created between Friday and Monday's sessions, but was unable to gain additional traction, a floor trader said.

 

Buyers Wednesday included Man Financial, which bought 1,000 December 2007; Bunge, which bought 300 September; UBS, which bought 900 September; and the USA division of Man Financial, which bought 900 September.

 

ABN Amro sold 1,300 September, JP Morgan sold 1,000 December and 600 September, and Citigroup sold 300 December.

 

Overall commodity fund activity was even on the day.

 

Oat futures ended at modestly higher levels as the absence of producer selling and light end user buying underpinned prices, a commercial analyst said.

 

September oats gained 2 1/2 cents to US$1.77 1/2 per bushel and December rose 3/4 cent to US$1.85.

 

Ethanol futures settled lower in thin trading. September ethanol declined 1 9/10 cents to US$2.52 per gallon and October fell 3 cents to US$2.475.

 

Thursday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is scheduled to release the weekly export sales report for the week ended Aug. 10 at 7:30 a.m.

 

Analysts expect sales between 900,000-1.4 million metric tonnenes for both old and new crop years combined. Export sales last week were a combined 1.719 million tonnenes.