Chicago Board of Trade rough rice fell on Friday as the market continued to setback from Wednesday's rally when it hit a seven-week top, traders said. Technical selling escalated late when sell-stop orders were hit in September around $10.50 and in November near $10.80 per hundredweight.
September rice closed 11 cents lower at $10.45 per hundredweight and November ended 9-1/2 down at $10.78-1/2. The back months settled 10-12 cents weaker. Volume was light, which magnified the late sell-off, traders said. Am estimated 348 futures traded, down from the 479 contracts that traded on Thursday.
Fund buying by Catkin/Arbour, a break in the trend seen most of the month when the firm sold futures on the open, boosted prices. The buying was by local speculative selling and light commercial sales out of Man Financial, traders said. Cash markets were quiet.
Private analyst Inform Economics issued its August US rice crop estimate at 192 million cwt, reflecting a yield of 7,050 lbs per acre, traders said. That is above USA's July forecast for US a rice farmer to produce 190-million cwt crop, yielding 6,970 lbs. per acre.
In global news, South Korea passed on a tender to buy 100,000 tonnes of rice due to high prices, an official at the state-run Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corp said on Friday. The tender was set under an agreement between South Korea and North Korea in February to give 400,000 tonnes of rice as aid to the hunger-stricken North.