Chicago Board of Trade corn futures closed firm on Friday on spillover buying from a strong rally in the soyabean futures, traders said. CBOT December corn last traded up 1/4 cent per bushel at $4.23-1/4. Cash corn basis bids were steady to mixed at US Midwest processors and terminals on Friday as a spike in futures weighed on the basis at some locations while a slow pace of farmer sales bolstered bids elsewhere, grain merchants said.
Dry weather beginning this weekend and continuing next week should allow US farmers to finish harvesting the 2013 corn and soyabean crops, an agricultural meteorologist said on Friday. "Outside of the cold it will be a good period for harvest, not much precipitation is in sight," said Drew Lerner, meteorologist for World Weather Inc. The RBOB gasoline to ethanol spread was at 0.7 cent per gallon, premium gasoline, unchanged from Thursday. The December corn futures contract was below all key moving averages and the nine-day relative strength index was at 47.