Rough rice futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed slightly firmer on Monday with spreading the day's feature, traders said. "It was all spread trade index-type funds were rolling out of their long September positions into November," said one rice trader.
An estimated 2,000 spreads traded as commodity funds holding long positions in CBOT rice moved them to the November contract, traders said. That helped November gain a little on September. September rice closed 3 cents higher at $9.21 per hundredweight. New-crop November ended 4 cents up at $9.51.
An estimated 3,748 futures and 43 options traded. That compared to 826 futures that traded on Friday. The cash markets were quiet, giving the market little direction.