November 11, 2006

 

CBOT Corn Review on Friday: Ends lower on technical selling

 

 

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ended lower in quiet trading Friday as technical selling in the absence of fresh news weighed on prices, sources said.

 

December corn settled 6 3/4 cents lower to US$3.43 1/4 cents per bushel and March fell 6 1/2 cents to US$3.59 1/2. E-CBOT day-session volume in December was 60,634 contracts.

 

The market rejected bullish news in Thursday's crop report and continued the correction on Friday, a floor trader said.

 

The absence of fresh news, with the U.S. government closed for the Veteran's Day holiday, helped limit trading activity, sources added.

 

Corn was pressured by technical selling for much of the day, a commission house analyst said. It looks like the objective in corn is to fill the upside gap created last week at lower price levels, he added.

 

Commodity trading funds were largely absent compared to previous sessions, a floor source said.

 

On daily open auction technical charts, December gapped open lower but settled just above its 10-day moving average.

 

Buyers Friday included Goldenberg-Hehmeyer, which bought 1,000 July; Man Financial, which bought 500 March; and UBS, which bought 400 July and 300 March.

 

JP Morgan sold 600 December, ADM Investor Services sold 400 December 2007, and ICAP sold 400 July.

 

Overall commodity fund activity was even in the session.

 

In spread trading, JP Morgan bought 2,000 March-December, and Tenco bought 2,000 December-March.

 

In options trading ABN Amro bought 2,000 December US$3.40 puts and 1,000 January US$3.50 puts. Advantage sold 2,000 December US$2.75 calls.

 

Oat futures ended lower as follow-through selling from Thursday and spillover weakness from corn and wheat pressured prices, sources said. The correction that started Thursday continued Friday and "the burden is now on the bull," a commission house analyst said.

 

December oats fell 6 3/4 cents to US$2.60 1/4 cents per bushel and March lost 7 cents to US$2.70 1/2.

 

Ethanol futures settled unchanged to lower in very light activity. The December contract settled unchanged at US$2.12 cents per gallon. The January contract did not trade and fell 6 cents to US$2.01.

 

On Monday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is scheduled to release the commitment of traders report for the period ending Nov. 7. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is scheduled to release the weekly export inspections report, and Monday afternoon, the weekly crop progress report is scheduled for release.