October 6, 2007

 

CBOT Corn Review on Friday: Settles flat in quiet trade; wheat, soy weigh

 

 

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures settled flat Friday in light trade as spillover weakness from lower soybean and wheat futures limited buying interest for much of the session until a late round of short covering near the close, analysts said.

 

December corn settled unchanged at US$3.42 1/4 per bushel, and March also ended unchanged at US$3.59.

 

Corn was weaker for much of the session on the poor price action in soybeans and to a lesser extent wheat, an E-CBOT trader said. November soybeans fell 13 3/4 cents to US$9.40 1/2 and December wheat declined 16 cents to US$8.90.

 

A crop production estimate from Informa Economics during the session had little market impact, said Brian Hoops, president of Midwest Market Solutions in Yanktonne, S.D.

 

Even though Informa's estimate of 13.506 billion bushels was almost 200 million bushels above the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Sept. figure of 13.308 billion, it was "a bit of a relief that the number wasn't higher," said Hoops.

 

Underlying commercial buying was noted during the session with a "change of ownership" likely taking place between speculative interests and commercials, a trader said.

 

On the close, short covering ahead of the weekend and after losses set earlier in the week supported prices, the trader said. Price direction Monday will depend on harvest activity over the weekend as well as what the other grains do in Sunday's overnight session.

 

On daily technical charts, electronically traded December corn remained below its major moving averages.

 

In options trading, ADM bought 5,000 December US$4.00 calls, and UBS bought 2,000 December US$3.30 puts.

 

Oat futures ended with mild losses in quiet trade as commission house selling weighed on the market, a trader said. Some participants were absent ahead of a Canadian holiday Monday. Canada is a major oat supplier to the U.S.

 

December oats settled 1 1/4 cents lower at US$2.73 per bushel.

 

Ethanol futures settled higher in light trade. November ethanol settled up 0.007 cent at US$1.579 per gallon and December gained 1 cent to US$1.583.

 

Friday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is scheduled to release the commitment of traders report for the period ending Oct. 2. The USDA is closed Monday for the Columbus Day holiday and the weekly export inspections and weekly crop progress reports are scheduled for release Tuesday.