Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were mixed early Wednesday with nearby contracts lower on bear-spreading, traders said. At 10:12 am CDT (1512 GMT), CBOT corn was 2-1/4 cents lower to 3/4 cent higher, with May down 2-1/4 at $3.90-1/4 per bushel and new-crop December up 1/2 at $4.02.
Traders said speculators were buying new-crop months and selling the old-crop as market attention shifted to possible bullish price moves in the new-crop marketing year (2007/08). Some posturing was noted ahead of Friday's USDA March planting intentions and quarterly stocks reports.
An average of analysts' estimates pegged 2007 US corn acres 87.987 million, above last year's 78.327 million and US corn stocks on March 1 at 5.994 billion bushels, below March 1 a year ago of 6.987 billion. Oat futures were down 1-3/4 cents to up 2-1/2 cents, with May down 1-3/4 at $2.87-3/4 per bushel.