Rough rice futures at the Chicago Board of Trade fell on Friday on follow-through technical selling, traders said. January rice closed 5-1/2 cents weaker at $13.12-1/2 per hundredweight and March ended 5 lower at $13.45. The market trended lower all week as traders took profits following this season's run to all-time highs.
Traders said Informa Economics forecast 2008 US rice planting estimate at 2.81 million acres, near the 2.84 million acres seed in 2007. An estimated 1,517 futures and 59 options traded, compared to 3,065 futures and 10 options that traded on Thursday.