Chicago Board of Trade rough rice futures closed mostly lower on Monday on subdued technical selling by speculators, but bullish moves in November rice options brought the market off its lows, traders said.
March rice settled down 1 cent at $10.12 per hundredweight, with May down 1-1/2 at $10.41. New-crop November ended unchanged at $10.86. Volume was estimated by the CBoT at 649 rice futures and 380 options.
Man Financial was the day's featured seller in what appeared to be long liquidation by funds. But the market came off its lows as Calyon Financial bought November $12.00 calls. The call buying underpinned back months and firmed up front-month March as well. Spread activity was negligible, following heavy trade in March/May last week when firms rolled March positions forward.
There was no fundamental news to steer prices and exports were quiet. Rice futures have lagged since the USDA's January 12 crop report showed a bigger supply of US rice than traders expected. That along with a slow pace of exports has brought the market off a two-year top made January 12.
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