December 8, 2007

 

CBOT Corn Review on Friday: Rallies on technical buying, strong wheat, soy

 

 

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures settled higher Friday, supported by technical buying and spillover from the strong gains established in wheat and soybean futures, a commission house analyst said.

 

March corn settled 5 1/4 cents higher at US$4.17 1/4 per bushel.

 

Technical buying as corn traded above resistance at US$4.14 per bushel helped supply support for the market, the analyst said. Corn traded below US$4.17, the next level of resistance for most of the session before pushing higher at the close on speculative buying interest, a trader said.

 

Commodity fund buying was estimated at 5,000 contracts.

 

Spillover from a surge in wheat futures added to the gains. CBOT March wheat settled 30 cents higher at US$9.21 1/2 per bushel.

 

There wasn't much fresh news, but interest in buying agricultural commodities helped push the market higher, a trader said. It appeared that people were liquidating positions in crude oil futures and entering the grains, an e-cbot trader said.

 

A rally in soybean futures also helped buoy corn, the e-cbot trader said. January soybeans jumped 21 cents to US$11.19 3/4 per bushel.

 

Price direction on Monday will depend on what wheat does in Sunday's night trading session and the level of speculative interest, an analyst said.

 

On daily technical charts, March made another new high for its recent move, trading to its highest level since June 21.

 

In options trading, ADM Investor Services bought 1,000 March US$4.10 calls and sold 1,000 May US$4.30 calls. FC Stonnee bought 1,000 July US$2.30 calls, sold 1,000 July US$5.60 calls and sold 2,000 July US$3.90 puts.

 

Oat futures settled modestly higher, buoyed by the sharp gains in the rest of the grains. Oats were higher on spillover as price relationships between oats and the other grains can only widen so far, a trader said.

 

March oats settled 1 1/4 cents higher at US$2.80 1/4 per bushel.

 

Ethanol futures ended higher. January ethanol settled up .006 cent at US$1.885 per gallon and February rose 1.5 cents to US$1.84.

 

On Friday afternoon, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission was scheduled to release the commitments of traders report for the period ended Dec. 4.