Chicago Board of Trade rough rice futures closed lower on Thursday on a mild setback as the market was technically overbought, traders said. July rice ended 1-1/2 cent lower at $8.86 per hundredweight. The back months ended a penny lower.
The nine-day relative strength index for the July contract dipped to 69 by the close down from 73 on Wednesday. A market with an RSI of 70 or above is viewed overbought. The May contract, which stops trading of Friday, settled 1 cent lower at $8.66. Open interest was at four contracts as of Thursday's open.
Speculative buying was met by commercial hedge pressure, keeping prices within recent ranges.
Volume was light estimated 333 futures and 90 options.
That compared to 709 futures traded on Wednesday. Weekly export data failed to give the market much direction, traders said.
The US Agriculture Department said 45,000 tonnes of US rice was sold for export last week. That was 43 percent above the previous week. Iraq bought 7,500 tonnes and was the biggest shipper with 24,500 tonnes. In the futures delivery market, a customer of Dowdy Weskit Group posted four May contracts. A USA-Man customer stopped three.