Chicago Board of Trade rough rice closed lower on Wednesday as commercial sales and quiet cash markets pressured prices, traders said. Rice closed lower in contrast to the other Chicago grain markets that rallied amid crop weather jitters given the heat and dryness in the southern US Midwest.
"When there's no business in the cash market it's really hard to rally," said one floor trader. September rice ended 1 cent lower at $10.52 per hundredweight. November closed 1-1/2 cent weaker at $10.85. The market climbed on speculative fund buying. But that was met by commercial selling out of Man Financial.
There was some positioning before the USDA monthly crop report on Friday. But overall volume was Very light estimated 259 futures, down from the 455 futures that traded on Tuesday.
USDA left its weekly world market price for long grain rough rice unchanged at $7.47 per cwt. Asian rice prices were strong. Paddy prices in Vietnam jumped 10 percent in the past week as exporters scrambled to find supplies as exporters are snapping up the newly harvested crop, traders said.