December 29, 2005

 

CBOT Corn Review on Wednesday: Modest gains on fund buying

 

 

Corn futures traded at the Chicago Board of Trade ended higher Wednesday, finishing in the black for the eighth straight session as fund buying helped lift prices higher late after a quiet 2-sided trading day, sources said. March futures reached their highest level in almost 2 1/2 months.

 

March corn settled up 3/4 cent at US$2.16 1/4 per bushel, May corn also gained 3/4 cent to US$2.25, and July corn ended up 3/4 cent at US$2.33 per bushel.

 

Trading activity was 2-sided for much of the session with the market in a holiday trading mode, a floor broker said. However as in recent days, commodity funds were modest buyers at several points during the session, but were unable to generate much additional buying interest, traders said.

 

Corn set session highs after midday as renewed fund buying touched off light technical buy-stops above the US$2.16 level in the March contract, eventually reaching US$2.17, the 100-day moving average and a 2 1/2 month high, a floor analyst said.

 

The absence of any additional buying interest however, limited the upside with some traders taking profits unwilling to enter into positions before year end, he added.

 

Firm wheat futures provided support to corn with March wheat gaining 5 1/2 cents to US$3.45 1/2 as fund buying helped support wheat, sources said.

 

Buyers on Wednesday included Fimat buying 2,000 March and 500 July, Calyon buying 1,000 March, UBS buying 1,500 March, ADM buying 500 March, Citigroup buying 400 March, the RIS division of Man Financial buying 400 March, Shatkin buying 700 March, and Tenco buying 400 March.

 

Sellers Wednesday included Cargill selling 400 March, Fimat selling 400 March, the Refco division of Man Financial selling 400 March, ADM selling 100 July and Goldenberg Hehmeyer selling 200 March.

 

Commodity fund buying was estimated at 7,000 contracts.

 

Oat futures ended mostly higher with the March contract up 3 3/4 cents to US$1.97 1/2 per bushel.

 

Ethanol futures settled mixed. The most-active April contract did not trade and ended up 1/2 cent to US$2.01 1/2 per gallon.