December 22, 2005

 

CBOT Corn Review on Wednesday: Mostly higher on late soy rally

 

 

Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade finished mostly higher Wednesday as a late rally in soybean and soymeal futures helped reverse modest losses set earlier, sources said.

 

March corn settled 1/4 cent higher at US$2.10 per bushel, May also rose 1/4 cent to US$2.19, and July corn ended 1/2 cent higher to US$2.27 3/4 cents per bushel.

 

The late gains in soymeal and soybeans spilled over to support corn and helped reverse light losses, a floor trader said. Light fund buying also added support late, they noted.

 

Besides the late buying interest, it was a featureless session, said Vic Lespinasse, of AG Edwards & Sons in Chicago. The market was content to consolidate after the recent price strength for the day, with little fresh news. The dollar was higher, which was a little negative, but there was not much to trade off, he added.

 

Trading activity was light as traders began to prepare for the Christmas and New Year's holidays with interest from commission house customers below recent levels, several floor traders said.

 

On technical charts, March futures ended above their 50-day moving average.

 

Buyers on Wednesday included Calyon Financial buying 1,100 March, Fimat buying 1,000 March, ABN Amro buying 500 March, Tenco buying 300 March, UBS buying 300 March and Cargill buying 200 March.

 

Sellers included the Refco division of Man Financial selling 500 May and 100 July, FC Stonnee selling 300 March and 100 July, UBS selling 300 March and R.J. O'Brien selling 100 July.

 

Commodity fund buying was estimated at 1,000 contracts.

 

Oat futures finished mixed with the March contract gaining 2 3/4 cents to US$1.92 1/2 per bushel.

 

Ethanol futures also settled mixed. The most-active April contract did not trade and finished unchanged at US$1.98 per gallon.

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is scheduled to release the weekly export sales report for the week ended Dec. 15 on Thursday at 7:30 a.m. CST (1330 GMT). Sales totaled 921.8 thousand metric tonnes in the week ended Dec. 8.