Chicago Board of Trade rough rice futures closed lower and range-bound on Friday after a lacklustre session amid few fresh leads, traders said. The market continued its technical sell-off that began on Monday.
January rice closed 1/2 cent lower at $7.46-1/2 per hundredweight 22-1/2 cents off last on Friday's close.
The deferred months settled 1/2 to 1 cent weaker. The day's feature was the November-January spread trading at 20 cents, before the November contract expired.
The spread narrowed from 25 to 26 cents this week, but went off close to full carry amid ample US rice supplies.
Fimat Futures was noted spreading January-November and RJ O'Brien was on the other side.
The November contract went off the board quietly, down 3 cents at $7.30.
There were no deliveries posted against the November contract on Friday.
There was little change in US market fundamentals, traders said. "It's very quiet in the country farmers are not anxious to sell," said Gnomon Coleman, an Arkansas rice broker in Briskly.
"They've put a huge amount of rice in loan and they're content with holding out to see if they can't get some improvement in price later," he said referring to farmers putting their 2005 crop in the USDA's loan program.