September 15, 2007

 

CBOT Corn Review on Friday: Higher on strong soy, spreads

 

 

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ended higher in choppy trade Friday as a combination of factors supported prices, analysts said.

 

September corn went off the board at US$3.36 1/2 per bushel, up 5 1/2 cents, December gained 2 1/4 cents to US$3.49 and March also rose 2 1/4 cents to US$3.66.

 

"Corn was supported by the gains in soybeans as well as technical-related buying," said Shawn McCambridge, senior grain analyst at Prudential Financial.

 

November soybeans rallied 13 1/2 cents higher to US$9.54 3/4 per bushel.

 

In addition, the unwinding of long wheat-short corn spreads underpinned corn while weighing on wheat, McCambridge said.

 

December wheat, which traded on both sides of Thursday's settlement price, finished 1 cent higher at US$8.46 in choppy trade.

 

The absence of strong selling interest, despite an expected active harvest weekend also provided support, an E-CBOT trader said. Position squaring ahead of the weekend helped trim the gains late, the E-CBOT trader said.

 

Price direction Monday depends on what happens regarding the level of harvest activity over the weekend and what happens to wheat in Sunday's overnight session, the E-CBOT trader said.

 

On daily technical charts, electronically traded December corn traded an inside day, between the high and low established in Thursday's session.

 

In open auction trading, MF Global bought 400 December and JP Morgan sold 800 December. Open auction commodity fund buying was estimated at 4,000 contracts.

 

In options trading, JP Morgan bought 2,000 December US$3.20 puts, RJ O'Brien bought 2,000 March US$3.10 puts and sold 500 December US$3.70 puts.

 

Oat futures settled with small gains as light fund buying supported prices despite thin hedge-related selling, an analyst said.

 

Dec oats gained 1 3/4 cents to US$2.80 3/4 per bushel and Mar rose 1 cent to US$2.90.

 

Ethanol futures settled unchanged to slightly higher. Oct ethanol ended unchanged at US$1.608 per gallon and Nov rose 1 cent to US$1.60.

 

On Friday afternoon, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is scheduled to release the weekly commitments of traders report for the week ended Sept. 11. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is scheduled to release the weekly crop progress report at 4 p.m. EDT.