August 30, 2005

 

CBOT Corn Outlook on Tuesday: Flat-Down 1 cent; following overnight prices

 

 

Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade are expected to open flat to 1 cent lower Tuesday following weaker prices in overnight trading, sources said.

 

In e-CBOT trade, September corn edged 1/4 cent lower to $2.04 1/2 cents per bushel, December declined 3/4 cent to $2.18 3/4, and March corn fell 3/4 cent to $2.29.

 

"There's not much here to trade off of right now," a floor trader said. Besides rolling out of September positions ahead of Wednesday's first notice day for deliveries against the nearby contract, there's little fresh news, he added.

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday reported that 52% of the U.S. corn crop was in good-to-excellent condition, up 2 percentage points from last week. In Illinois, 13% of the crop was rated good-to-excellent, up 1 percentage point from last week. Although the report was slightly better than anticipated by analysts, they noted the impact of the report is muted with the crop entering its final stages of development.

 

Movement of cash grain to the Gulf via the Mississippi River will remain slow until the extent of the damage to Gulf elevators and warehouses from Hurricane Katrina has been evaluated.

 

Cash corn basis bids are mixed Tuesday morning with some locations off sharply, cash sources said. Decatur, Ill., was down 2 cents, Burlington, Iowa, was down 15 cents, while St. Louis was unchanged.

 

Katrina is expected to become a depression later Tuesday and move into the Ohio Valley, heading northeast through Ohio.

 

Technical analyst Jim Wyckoff pegs first resistance in December corn at Monday's high of $2.22 and then at $2.25. He sets first support at Monday's low of $2.19 1/4 and then the contract low of $2.17.

 

In overseas markets, corn futures at China's Dalian Commodity Exchange settled slightly higher with the January contract up RMB2 at RMB1,205 a metric tonne.