Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were mostly firm early on Friday on a mild short-covering technical bounce ahead of the weekend, traders said. At 10:10 am CST (1610 GMT), CBOT March corn was unchanged at $1.95-3/4 per bushel. Deferred contracts ranged from 1/4 cent higher to 3/4 cent per bushel lower.
Cargill Investor Services and Man Financial each bought 200 March. ADM Investor Services bought 300 March and Calyon Financial sold 300 March, pit sources said.
Selling by commodity funds knocked corn to near contract lows on Thursday. That left the market floundering near oversold technical levels which leads to the potential for at least a mild short-covering bounce. The nine-day relative strength index (RSI) for March closed at 34, near the benchmark 30 level that chartists view as one indicator of an oversold market.