November 16, 2007

 

CBOT Corn Outlook on Friday: Up 1-2 cents on outside markets, steady e-CBOT

 

 

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures are predicted to begin day session trading 1-to-2 cents higher on Friday following a rebound in outside inflationary markets and steady prices in overnight trade.

 

In overnight electronic trading, December corn rose 1 1/4 cents to US$3.76 per bushel and March also gained 1 1/4 cents to US$3.93. E-CBOT volume in December was 8,356 contracts.

 

Gold and silver have rebounded from Thursday's selloff, and crude oil is around US$1 higher, so corn will try to trade to the upside, a commission house analyst said. Export sales were good but within the range expected by analysts and should not be much of a factor, the analyst said.

 

U.S. Department of Agriculture reported weekly corn export sales were 1.364 million metric tonnes for the period ended Nov. 8, within the 800,000-to-1.5 million tonnes expected by analysts. Egypt, South Korea and Taiwan were the largest buyers on the week.

 

The dollar is weaker and should supply some strength to the market, but trading is expected to be choppy on the lack of fresh inputs, a trader said. But fundamental news remains lacking so the outside inflationary markets will set the tone for Friday's trading, the trader added.

 

Corn could experience some squaring of positions ahead of the weekend with some people expected to be absent next week due to the holiday, an analyst said

 

On daily open auction technical charts, March corn futures closed lower and near session lows though no chart damage occurred, a technical analyst said. A weekly low close Friday would produce some near-term chart damage and negate an uptrend from the October low, the analyst said. The next upside objective for market bulls is to close above major psychological resistance at US$4.00 per bushel. The next downside price objective is to push below support at Thursday's and this week's low of US$3.91 1/2.

 

First resistance for March corn is seen at US$3.95, Thursday's high and then at US$3.97 3/4. First support is seen at US$3.91 1/2 and then at US$3.87 1/2, Thursday's low.

 

In other corn news, corn futures on China's Dalian Commodities Exchange settled lower with the benchmark May contract down RMB20 to RMB1,757/tonne.

 

On Friday afternoon, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is scheduled to release the weekly commitment of traders data for the period ended Nov. 13.