October 17, 2006

 

CBOT Corn Review on Monday: Higher; late wheat gains support

 

 

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures settled modestly higher Monday, shrugging off modest losses as a late rally in nearby wheat futures on the closing bell spilled over into the corn pit, sources said.

 

Trading was choppy and two-sided as corn was unable to maintain any type of price direction, they added.

 

December corn rose 2 1/4 cents to US$3.16 3/4 cents per bushel, and March gained 2 1/2 cents to US$3.26 1/2. e-CBOT day session volume in December was 60,161 contracts.

 

"There was really nothing special about corn today," said Dale Gustafson, an analyst with Citigroup Global Markets Inc. Wheat remains an influence.

 

Export inspections were a bit of a disappointment and the market still has the bulk of the harvest ahead of it, he added.

 

Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported 29% of the U.S. corn crop had been harvested as of Oct. 8.

 

The USDA reported that export inspections totaled 41.041 million bushels for the week ended Oct. 12, near the low end of analysts estimates of 40 million to 50 million bushels.

 

Corn trading was two-sided for much of the session, a commission house analyst said. Wheat retained some of its influence on corn prices with its sharp rally on the close lifting corn higher, he added.

 

Futures established new life-of-contract highs in several months near mid session on light fund buying but was unable to move beyond those levels and was content to trade within the range established earlier, the analyst added.

 

On open auction technical charts, December remained above its major moving averages and its 14-day Relative Strength Index stands at 75.95.

 

Buyers Monday included Tenco, which bought 3,000 March, and 1,500 December; Calyon, which bought 1,000 December; Man Financial, which bought 1,000 December; and UBS, which bought 1,000 July.

 

Calyon sold 1,500 December, Fortis sold 1,000 December, Man Financial sold 700 December, Citigroup sold 500 December and 400 March, and Tenco sold 500 March.

 

Overall commodity fund buying was estimated at 4,500 contracts.

 

In options trading, Advantage Futures bought 21,000 March US$2.70 puts and sold 7,000 March US$3.20 puts.

 

Oat futures finished with light gains as the sharp rally in nearby wheat futures near the close helped reverse modest losses set earlier on profit-taking, sources said.

 

December oats rose 1 1/2 cents to US$2.38 cents per bushel and March inched up 1/4 cent to US$2.43.

 

Ethanol futures settled mixed in thin activity. November ethanol did not trade and settled up .005 cent to 1.885 per gallon. December, which also did not trade, rose 2 cents to US$1.885.

 

On Monday afternoon, the USDA is scheduled to release the weekly crop progress report at 3 p.m. CDT (2000 GMT).