The Chicago Board of Trade rice market closed sharply higher on Friday on follow-through buying, with the January contract ending above $10 per hundredweight for the first time in nearly two weeks, traders said. January rice closed 9-1/2 cents higher at $10.07-1/2. The back months settled 2 to 12 cents firmer.
Buy-stop orders were triggered as the market climbed on speculative buying by commodity funds. The market soared above its 20-day moving average of $9.96, reaching a session high of $10.15.
Shatkin/Arbor and J.P. Morgan were the featured players, likely buying for commodity funds, traders said. Commercial selling by Man Financial took the market off its highs. Spread trade was much lighter in January-March compared to Thursday, traders said. An estimated 2,094 futures and 255 options traded. That was down from the 4,153 futures that traded Thursday when firms were actively rolling January positions at month end.
In export news, South Korea reissued tenders to buy 34,429 tonnes of milled rice on December 11, with about one-third to be sourced from the United States. South Korea earlier this week passed on the tenders due to higher prices than expected.