September 12, 2006

 

CBOT Corn Review on Monday: Modestly lower ahead of USDA reports

 

 

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures settled lower Monday as traders evened their positions ahead of Tuesday's U.S. crop production and supply-demand reports, sources said.

 

September corn fell 3 cents to US$2.28 3/4 cents per bushel, and December declined 2 1/2 cents to US$2.43 1/2. E-CBOT day-session volume in December was 42,169 contracts.

 

Light local and fund selling weighed on prices as the market waits on Tuesday's USDA crop reports for further market direction, a floor trader said.

 

In a Dow Jones Newswires survey of 20 analysts, the average 2006-07 corn production estimate was 10.996 billion bushels, slightly higher than the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 10.976 billion bushel estimate in August. The average yield estimate was 152.5 bushels per acre, slightly higher than the 152.2 bushels forecast in August by the USDA.

 

The USDA is scheduled to release its September crop production and supply and demand reports Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. CDT.

 

Seasonally corn should come under harvest pressure this time of the year and that encouraged the bears to sell, the trader added.

 

Technical selling with December gapping open lower on day-only technical charts and weaker outside markets also added to the negative tonnee, analysts said.

 

However, a rebound in crude oil futures from multi-month lows helped cap the weakness in corn late and provided some support, a commercial trader said.

 

Weekly corn export inspections were 47.686 million bushels, the USDA reported, slightly higher than the 40-45 million expected by analysts. The news had little impact, a floor trader said.

 

Buyers on Monday included FC Stonnee, which bought 800 December; RJ O'Brien, which bought 1,300 December; and Fimat, which bought 400 December.

 

Goldenberg-Hehmeyer sold 2,500 December, FC Stonnee sold 500 December, ABN Amro sold 600 December and Rand Financial sold 500 December.

 

Commodity fund buying was estimated at 3,000 contracts.

 

Oat futures settled unchanged, rebounding from light losses as short covering and spillover from corn late in the session provided support, a local trader said.

 

September oats finished unchanged at US$1.88 per bushel and December also ended unchanged at US$193 3/4.

 

Ethanol futures settled lower in modest trade. October ethanol slipped 2.5 cents to US$2.01 1/2 cents per gallon. November fell 2 cents to US$2.00.

 

Monday afternoon, the USDA is scheduled to release the weekly crop progress report for the period ending Sept. 10 at 3 p.m. CDT (2000 GMT).