December 20, 2007

 

CBOT Corn Review on Wednesday: Higher on wheat, soy spillover

 

 

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ended higher Wednesday in a lightly traded session as spillover from stronger wheat and soybean prices buoyed corn in the absence of fresh news, analysts said.

 

March corn settled 2 3/4 cents higher at US$4.34 3/4 per bushel. CBOT March wheat rallied 21 1/2 cents to US$9.73 1/2 per bushel and January soybeans rose 9 1/4 cents to US$11.59.

 

There wasn't any fresh news to influence the market, leaving corn to look to the other grains for direction, said Brian Hoops, president of Midwest Market Solutions in Yanktonne, S.D.

 

Trading volume was modest as some participants are scaling down their trading ahead of the holidays, a commission house analyst said.

 

The signing of the energy bill by President George W. Bush helped keep a bid in the deferred contracts, with several making new-life-of contract highs in anticipation of higher demand for corn from the ethanol industry, said Hoops.

 

Stronger crude oil futures also added some support, as did thin speculative buying, the commission house analyst said.

 

In open-auction activity, commodity fund buying was estimated at 2,000 contracts.

 

Thursday's price direction will depend on the level of weekly corn export sales and outside market influence, an analyst said.

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is scheduled to release the weekly export sales report at 8:30 a.m. EST (1330 GMT). Analysts expect corn export sales for the week ended Dec. 13 at 800,000 to 1.3 million metric tonnes.

 

On daily technical charts, electronically traded March corn settled above its major moving averages.

 

In options trading, RJ O'Brien sold 800 January US$4.20 calls and bought 300 December US$3.60 puts.

 

Oat futures settled higher as light commercial buying supported prices, an analyst said. Compared to the other grains, oats are undervalued, the analyst said.

 

March oats settled 4 cents higher to US$3.01 per bushel.

 

Ethanol futures ended mixed. January ethanol rose 3 cents to US$2.164 per gallon while February slipped .002 cent to US$2.093.