Rough rice futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed higher amid light speculative buying on Wednesday, with rallies in the other CBOT markets lending support, traders said. Trading in rice was subdued compared with the other markets, which were flooded by speculative buying by commodity funds.
November rice closed 5-1/2 cents higher at $9.75-1/2 per hundredweight. The back months ended 3 to 6 cents up. In contrast, CBOT wheat futures were the hottest grains market reaching a 10-year high before closing 25-1/2 cents higher at $4.65 per bushel amid heavy speculative buying by commodity funds.
Rice volume was estimated at 945 futures and 84 options, up from the 403 futures that traded on Tuesday. Nearly half the volume was from spreads as firms rolled out of their November positions before the delivery period starts at month's end, traders said. J.P. Morgan spread January/November about 200 times. Local traders were on the other side.