CBoT corn ends up

Corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade ended higher on Thursday due to disappointing rainfall midweek in the US Midwest and forecasts for hotter weather by the weekend, traders said. A strong rally in wheat and a technical bounce from the tumble on Tuesday to fresh eight-month lows also boosted the corn futures market, they said.
CBoT corn closed 1-3/4 to 4-3/4 cents per bushel higher, with July up 4 at $3.24 per bushel. New-crop December was up 4-1/2 at $3.42-1/2 per bushel. Volume was lighter than in recent weeks after the US Independence holiday. An estimated 180,105 corn futures and 55,622 options traded.
"I think it was a technical bounce in corn and the soy complex, corn had gotten oversold," said Mario Balletto, analyst for Citigroup. The US corn crop is in its early stages of the crucial pollination or reproductive stage of development and hot weather now could trim production prospects.
Light scattered showers fell across the US Midwest crop belt during the past two days, with hotter, drier conditions expected by the weekend, a forecaster said Thursday. "It's going to be a little bit hotter, increasing the stress to corn, in the next three to four days, especially the weekend. But then it will turn cooler," said Joel Burgio, a forecaster with DTN Meteorlogix.
US farmers have planted the largest land area to corn since 1944 because of the price surge early this year to 10-year highs amid soaring demand from the ethanol industry. A bumper corn crop is needed to satisfy the demand for corn from the fledgling green fuels sector while maintaining feed grain stocks for the more traditional livestock and export sectors.
Deliveries of corn on the July contract were heavy on Thursday at 1,369 lots and a Man customer was the main stopper of 735 lots. Cash basis bids for corn were firm at river locations amid solid export demand and steady at interior locations. Farmer selling was slow because of the fall Tuesday to eight-month lows in corn futures prices, cash dealers said.
Traders are watching the September contract trade well below all key moving averages and the nine-day relative strength index is deep into oversold territory at 21. Traders view an RSI of 30 or less as an oversold market and 70 or more as an overbought market. Oat futures closed 6-3/4 cents per bushel lower to up 1-3/4, with July down 6-3/4 at $2.86-1/4 per bushel. Oat volume was light estimated at 783 futures and four options.