December 21, 2007
CBOT Corn Outlook on Friday: 1-2 cents higher on follow through buying
Chicago Board of Trade corn futures are expected to start day session trading 1-to-2 cents higher Friday as mildly higher prices overnight and follow through from buying is expected to support prices at the opening, an analyst said.
In overnight electronic trading, March corn rose 1 1/4 cents to US$4.38 3/4 per bushel. e-CBOT volume in March was 3,506 contracts.
The market should open in positive territory on follow through from Thursday's late strength and the overnight session, a commission house analyst said. There is little fresh news out and trading is expected to be choppy with volume light with some participants absent beginning their holidays early, the analyst added.
Weekly corn exports were strong and it appears that corn has not reached a price point to begin to ration export demand, an analyst said. In addition, the market remains sensitive to the weather in Argentina. Overnight, South Korea bought 55,000 metric tonnes of U.S. corn, the analyst said.
Mainly dry weather is forecast for Saturday in Argentina with a chance for scattered thunderstorms with amounts of 0.25-to 1.00 inch through eastern Cordoba, Santa Fe and northern Buenos Aires Saturday night into Sunday, DTN Meteorlogix Weather said. Mainly dry conditions are forecast from Monday into Wednesday.
On daily open auction technical charts, March corn closed near session highs and traded a mildly bullish "outside day" up on the daily bar chart. Bulls are still very powerful technically, but it would not be a surprise to see some profit-taking pressure before year end, a technical analyst said. A 10-week old uptrend is in place on the daily bar chart, the analyst added. The next upside price objective is closing prices above the open auction contract high of US$4.41 1/2 per bushel. The next downside target for the bears remains pushing prices below solid support at US$4.25. First resistance is seen at the contract high of US$4.41 1/2, and then at US$4.45. First support is seen at US$4.35, and then at US$4.31 1/4.
In other corn news, corn futures on China's Dalian Commodities Exchange settled slightly lower with the benchmark May contract down RMB2 to RMB1,724/tonne.
