Chicago Board of Trade rice futures closed weaker on Friday on slipover selling from Thursday's 50-cent limit down move, traders said.
Volume was extremely light as the dive on Thursday spooked speculators. "People stepped back from the market today," one rice trader said. CBOT rough rice futures closed steady to 2 cents lower in the nearby.
September was down 2 at $7.38, following on Thursday's 50-cent limit move lower. November closed unchanged at $7.30. Estimated volume was 157 futures and 67 options. Futures trade on Thursday reached 585 lots.
Expectations that Thai rice prices will continue rising amid strong demand and worries about India's rice crop shrinking due to poor monsoon rains remain somewhat supportive. Countering those bullish inputs were ongoing concerns about exporting this year's US rice crop forecast to exceed 2003 production by 23.8 million hundredweight.
The 2004 US harvest should begin in Texas in about three to four weeks, floor traders said. Also bearish is Brazil's goal to export 100,000 tonnes of rice in 2004 a country that typically imports US rice.
This would be the first time in 25 years that Brazil produced enough rice to become a net exporter, said the government's crop supply agency Confab on Friday.
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