November 22, 2005

 

CBOT Corn Review on Monday: Near unchanged in quiet trade

 

 

Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade settled little changed Monday as earlier gains based on light short covering gave way late to thin fund selling and spillover weakness from wheat as that commodity made new contract lows, sources said.

 

December corn inched up 1/4 cent to USUS$1.91 1/2 per bushel, March corn ended unchanged at USUS$2.05 1/4, after making a new contract low of USUS$2.04 3/4 earlier, and May corn gained 1/4 cent to USUS$2.13 1/2 per bushel.

 

"There's not a lot to grasp on the bull side going into the Thanksgiving," said Don Roose, president of U.S. Commodities in West Des Moines, Iowa. Basis levels continue to provide support underneath the market, but overhead there was nothing bullish to talk about, he said.

 

The main feature of the trade continued to be the rolling out of December positions in to March ahead of the holiday and next week's first notice day, a floor analyst said. On Wednesday, March will assume the lead contract month position, according to the CBOT.

 

ABN Amro was noted spreading 3,000 March-December, R.J. O'Brien spread 3,000 December-March and Man Financial spread 2,500 December-March.

 

Traders noted that China announced its 16th and 17th cases of Asian bird flu since late October, adding to ongoing concerns about the possible impact the disease might have on feed demand.

 

The feeling was that the market was a little tired of making new contract lows daily and was due for a bounce, a floor broker said. However, the market was unable to gain any traction in the absence of any news, so the upside was limited, he added.

 

A decline to new contract lows in wheat futures late in the day, with December wheat slipping beneath USUS$3.00 also helped keep corn well grounded.

 

Export inspections were 32.477 million bushels in line with the 30-35 million expected by analysts.

 

Buyers on Monday included FC Stonnee buying 400 December, ABN Amro buying 300 December, Refco buying 600 December and DT Trading buying 300 December.

 

Sellers Monday included ADM selling 400 December, Calyon Financial selling 600 December, Fimat selling 900 December and Refco selling 100 December.

 

Commodity fund selling was estimated at 1,500 contracts.

 

Oat futures finished higher with the December contract gaining 2 1/2 cents to USUS$1.70 1/2 per bushel.

 

Ethanol futures settled mostly lower. The January contract however, ended 1 cent higher at USUS$1.89 per gallon.