November 1, 2005

 

CBOT Corn Review on Monday: Make new lows again in quiet activity

 

 

Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade settled fractionally lower Monday. Prices retreated for the fourth straight session as good harvest weather, the absence of fresh news and light speculative selling kept futures trading in a narrow trading range, with the December future slipping to new contract lows for the sixth straight day, traders said.

 

December corn settled 3/4 cent lower at US$1.96 1/4 per bushel, March corn slipped 1/4 cent to US$2.10 1/4, and May corn fell 1/2 cent to US$2.18 3/4 per bushel.

 

"The market continues to be on the defensive," said Vic Lespinasse of AG Edwards and Sons. Harvest weather remains favorable, there is no bullish news and there was light speculative selling as well, he added.

 

Favorable harvest weather is expected over much of the U.S. Midwest corn belt over the next several days with scattered showers expected in the near term in the central section of the region, DTN Meteorlogix weather said.

 

On Monday afternoon, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is scheduled to release the weekly crop condition report. Traders and analysts expect between 80%-84% of the U.S. corn crop has been harvested through Sunday.

 

Export inspections released this morning came in within analysts' expectations of 32 million-42 million bushels at 35.302 million bushels.

 

"Buyers are not worried about the availability of supply, so there's no rush from overseas to buy corn at these prices," a floor analyst said.

 

Light speculative selling returned to the pit after being absent for several sessions, sources said. Commodity fund selling was estimated at 1,300 contracts Monday.

 

Buyers included Cargill buying 200 May and 800 December; Fimat buying 200 December; R.J. O'Brien buying 200 December; Tenco buying 400 December and 100 May; and DT Trading buying 200 December.

 

Sellers Monday included FC Stonnee selling 200 December and 100 May; Man Financial selling 100 May; O'Connor selling 1,500 December; Tenco selling 300 December; and JP Morgan selling 200 December.

 

In options trading, Cargill sold 400 March US$2.10 puts and ADM sold 500 December US$2.30 puts.

 

Oat futures settled moderately lower with the December contract down 4 cents to US$1.58 3/4 cents per bushel.

 

Ethanol futures finished mixed, with the January contract declining 2 cents to US$1.88 cents per gallon.

 

In other corn news, private trading firm FC Stonnee is expected to release its estimate of crop production and yield after the close on Tuesday, ahead of next week's USDA crop production and supply/demand reports.