September 7, 2007

 

CBOT Corn Review on Thursday: Settles lower; crop estimates, wheat weigh

 

 

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures settled lower Thursday, depressed by several private estimates indicating a bigger U.S. corn crop and lower wheat values after wheat's recent trend of setting new all-time highs, analysts said.

 

September corn declined 5 1/2 cents to US$3.23 1/4 per bushel, December fell 6 1/2 cents to US$3.39 1/4 and March settled 6 cents lower to US$3.55 3/4.

 

Corn was weighed down by the recent private crop estimates which indicate the U.S. corn crop will be larger than what the government predicted in August, said Don Roose, president of US Commodities in West Des Moines, Iowa.

 

Wednesday afternoon, FC Stonnee estimated the U.S. corn crop at 13.062 billion bushels with a yield of 152.9 bushels per acre. Thursday, Informa Economics estimated the crop size at 13.323 billion bushels with a yield of 156.0 bushels per acre.

 

A retreat from recent all-time highs established in wheat futures also added to the weak tonnee. Wheat was unable to continue its rally and that helped pressure corn futures, an analyst says. December wheat fell 11 1/2 cents to US$8.24.

 

With wheat unable to trade high, speculative selling helped press corn values lower, a commission house analyst said.

 

Light technical selling contributed to the lower tonnee as December corn fell below its major moving averages.

 

Market direction Friday hinges on the export sales report and what wheat prices do overnight, an E-CBOT trader said. Currently corn prices look a little soft, the trader said.

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is scheduled to release the weekly export sales report Friday at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Analysts expect sales between 400,000-1.3 million metric tonnes for the week ended Aug. 30. The report was delayed a day due to the holiday.

 

On daily technical charts, electronically traded December settled under its major moving averages and at its lowest level since mid-August.

 

In open auction trading, FC Stonnee bought 900 December, and Iowa Grain sold 1,300 December.

 

Commodity fund selling in open auction trading was estimated at 7,000 contracts.

 

In options trading, MF Global bought 1,200 March US$4.60 calls.

 

Oat futures settled lower despite light fund buying as hedge-related selling pressured prices, a trader said. September oats ended down 6 cents at US$2.51 per bushel and December declined 2 cents to US$2.60 1/2.

 

Ethanol futures finished weaker in light activity. October ethanol settled 2.1 cents lower at US$1.539 per gallon, and November fell 3.9 cents to US$1.58.