November 19, 2007

 

CBOT Corn Outlook on Monday: 3-5 cents higher on outside markets, overnight gains

 

 

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures are expected to start day session trading 3-to-5 cents higher Monday, as strong outside markets and firm prices in overnight trade are expected to support prices, analysts said.

 

In overnight electronic trading, December corn gained 5 1/4 cents to US$3.84 3/4 per bushel and March rose 4 1/2 cents to US$4.01. E-CBOT volume in December was 4,570 contracts.

 

"It's the same story but a different day, the dollar is lower and crude oil is higher and as a result corn should be higher on inflationary concerns," an analyst said.

 

There is not much fresh news out, silver and gold are slightly higher, but corn will continue to follow the path of the inflationary markets, a floor trader said.

 

On daily open auction technical charts, March corn futures closed higher Friday and near mid-range. Corn continues to closely follow the outside inflationary markets crude oil, gold and the U.S. dollar, a technical analyst said. The next upside objective for market bulls is to close prices above major psychological resistance at US$4.00 per bushel. The next downside price objective is to push below support at last week's low of US$3.91 1/2.

 

First resistance for March corn is seen at US$3.98 1/4, Friday's high and then at US$4.00. First support is seen at US$3.94 1/4 and then at US$3.91 1/2.

 

Large speculative traders reduced their long CBOT corn futures and options on futures positions by 10,129 contracts and cut their short positions by 4,386 contracts and are now net long 153,280 contracts as of Nov. 13, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission reported Friday in the commitment of traders' supplemental report. Large commercial traders increased their long futures and options on positions by 8,957 and added 1,819 contracts to their short positions and are now net short 401,348 contracts. Index funds cut their long positions by 5,267 contracts and trimmed their short holdings by 1,531 contracts and are now net long 355,842 contracts, the CFTC said.

 

In other corn news, corn futures on China's Dalian Commodities Exchange settled lower with the benchmark May contract down RMB5 to RMB1,752/tonne.

 

Morocco is tendering for 70,000 metric tonnes of U.S. corn, and South Korea bought 385,000 tonnes of U.S. corn, analysts said.

 

Monday the U.S. Department of Agriculture is scheduled to release the weekly export inspections report at 1100 EST and the weekly crop conditions report at 1600 EST