Rough rice futures at the Chicago Board of Traded closed weak on Monday after a lightly traded session, floor traders said. "It was hard to establish a trend commercial activity was light and on both sides," one rice broker said. July rice closed steady at $9.25 per hundredweight. The back months ended 1 to 4 cents lower.
Spread trade was also in active. Volume was estimated at 263 futures, down from the 828 contracts traded on Friday. After the markets closed, the US Agriculture Department reported that 55 percent of the US rice crop was in good to excellent condition.
That was down from the 59 percent rating the week before. In the delivery market, there were heavy July deliveries of 161 lots. It was the same trend as on Friday with the ADM house account posting all the deliveries and an ADM customer stopping them.
In world news, Indonesia said it extended its rice import ban for private traders until December on expected higher rice output this year.