Chicago Board of Trade corn futures were expected to open 1-2 cents per bushel higher on Friday, in line with overnight gains and buoyed by both export demand and talk that soya and wheat may steal 2008 corn acres.
CBOT e-trade overnight showed corn mostly up 1 to 2-1/4 cents, with December corn up 2-1/4 cents at $3.71-1/2, March up 1-3/4 at $3.87 and December 2008 new-crop corn up 1-1/4 at $4.17-1/2. December 2009 traded at $4.15.
Nearby corn got a jolt higher from Tuesday this week as wheat/corn spreads unwound and boosted corn. But December also crossed key technical barriers on Thursday, breaking through its 100-day moving average of $3.62-1/4 and 200-day MA at $3.75, reaching a top of $3.75-1/2, floor traders noted.
December corn open interest rose 5,956 lots on Thursday as prices rallied, with chart-watchers adding fresh positions. Talk circulated on Thursday that US farmers will switch some corn acreage - which this season hit a 63-year high amid the ethanol boom - into soyabeans next spring and into winter wheat this fall, due to soaring wheat and soya prices.
Traders said analytical firm Informa Economics, in its first 2008 acreage forecast, pegged US corn plantings down 4.7 million acres from last year to 88.2 million acres. Informa saw soya seedings up 4.8 million acres at 68.9 million acres and all-wheat acres up 2.1 million acres at 62.6 million.