US rough rice futures on the Chicago Board of Trade slipped on Thursday on heightening recession fears after government data showing US economic contraction, traders said. Early, rice rallied to a two-week high on USDA's smaller domestic rice stocks data.
November rice closed 9 cents lower at $15.29 per hundredweight, off its high of $15.64. January ended down 7-1/2 at $15.56. Volume was moderate, estimated at 1,781 futures and 30 options. Rice along with other commodities were pressed by the government's gross domestic product data that showed the US economy shrank at a 0.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter, its sharpest contraction in seven years.
Though analysts had expected a bigger decline, of 0.5 percent. That helped support the Dow industrials. The lower close in rice followed Wednesday's 50-cent limit-up move amid a broad-based commodity rally ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut. Trading limits revert back to 50 cents, from 75 as there no limit-move on the close.
First-notice day for November deliveries on Friday. Traders expected heavy deliveries of 300-500 contracts. USDA said October 1 California rough rice stocks were at 1.84 million cwt, down 39 percent from a year ago. USDA reported last week's US rice export sales at 34,300 tonnes, down 42 percent from the four-week average.
Comments
Comments are closed.