Chicago Board of Trade rough rice futures settled lower on Tuesday after a very thinly traded session on positioning ahead of Wednesday's US Department of Agriculture's monthly crop data, traders said.
The USDA will release its latest crop supply and demand data on Wednesday at 7:30 am CDT (1230 GMT). CBOT rough rice settled down 5 cents to 8 cents per cwt, with May down 8 cents at $11.15, still within striking distance of last week's 6-1/2 year top of $11.32 per cwt.
CBOT July rice settled down 8 cents at $11.30 after setting a contract high of $11.55 last week. "Trade was excruciatingly slow today, with Very light commercial sales and light (speculator) evening before USDA's report," one CBOT rice trader said.
Despite the weak close, rice brokers noted that CBOT rice futures were underpinned by floor talk of tightening US rice supplies. Many pit traders expect the US Department of Agriculture on Wednesday to boost its US 2003/04-rice export estimate by 1 million to 2 million cwt.
The USDA last forecast 2003/04 US rice exports at 99 million cwt and US 2003/04 rice ending stocks at 21.9 million cwt, but exports have remained strong during the month of April, brokers noted.
After the CBOT close, the US Department of Agriculture reported that the weekly market price for long grain rice was $5.85 per cwt, down 0.06 cent from last week's price of $5.91 per cwt.
There were six delivery notices posted against may rice, which expires on May 19. CBOT rough rice estimated volume on Tuesday was 118 contracts, compared with Monday's volume of 72 lots. Options trade totalled 109 lots.
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