December 21, 2006

 

CBOT Corn Review on Wednesday: Settles mixed in choppy trade

 

 

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ended mixed in choppy trading Wednesday, unable to maintain early advances.

 

March corn slipped 1/4 cent to US$3.72 3/4 per bushel and May corn gained 1/2 cent to 3.81 1/4. E-CBOT day-session volume in March was 41,749 contracts.

 

The market began higher on follow through from Tuesday's gains and higher prices overnight, a floor trader said. However, March could not trade above resistance at US$3.76 and the market fell back, he added.

 

Light fund selling also added to the slack tonnee, sources said.

 

Technically the market couldn't rally but it also couldn't break, a floor analyst said. It's a typical holiday trading market, he noted.

 

Spillover weakness from lower soybean values also limited upside interest in corn, floor sources said.

 

The market was quiet Wednesday with the holidays coming up, but if export sales are strong Thursday, the market could draw some support, the floor analyst noted.

 

Analysts contacted by Dow Jones Newswires expect weekly corn export sales between 1.0-1.3 million metric tonnes for the week ended Dec. 14.

 

On open-auction technical charts, March corn settled above its 10-day moving average but remained within its recent range of US$3.76 to US$3.62.

 

Buyers on Wednesday included JP Morgan, which bought 1,000 December and 600 March, Fimat, which bought 500 March, Citigroup, which bought 500 July and Rosenthal, which bought 500 July.

 

Calyon Financial sold 500 March, Fimat sold 500 March, and Fortis sold 500 March.

 

Commodity fund activity was even on the day.

 

In spread trading Fortis bought 1,000 March-July.

 

In options trading, RJ O'Brien bought 500 December US$3.60 puts and sold 500 December US$5.00 puts and 500 December US$3.00 puts.

 

Oat futures ended higher, but well off from earlier levels and near session lows as early fund and technical buying was offset by commercial related hedging, a floor source said.

 

March oats settled up 1/2 cent at US$2.70 1/4 per bushel and May rose 2 1/4 cents to US$2.74 1/4.

 

Ethanol futures settled with modest gains in thin trade. The January contract gained 3.5 cents to US$2.385 per gallon. The February contract rose 2.7 cents to US$2.247.

 

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is scheduled to release the weekly export sales report at 7:30 a.m. CST.