Chicago Board of Trade rough rice futures closed nearly unchanged on Wednesday as traders took profits after the market made contracts highs for the sixth straight session on speculative buying, brokers said.
The front three months made contract highs. September rice closed 1 cent lower at $9.86 per hundredweight and new-crop November ended unchanged at $10.13-1/2 after climbing to a contract high of $10.16 in e-trade.
An estimated 1,402 futures and 146 options traded, with volume boosted by spread trading, floor traders said.
That compared to 683 futures that traded on Tuesday.
The strength attracted both speculative and commercial selling with RJ O'Brien a featured seller, traders said.
Sell-stops were hit near $10.10 in November rice. But the market found support at the session low of $10.02 and began inching back up by the close.
The US Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday it raised the weekly world market price for long grain rough rice by 6 cents to $6.87 per cwt.