Rough rice futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed higher on Thursday amid positioning before the government updates its US acreage figure, traders said. "There are some folks that believe the acreage figure tomorrow morning will be down considerably from the March intentions report," said Gnomon Coleman, an analyst and rice broker with Briskly, Arkansas.
The US Agriculture Department in March forecast US rice plantings at 2.644 million acres, down 7 percent from the year before. There was speculation that rice plantings could be down as much as 15 percent from the 2.838 million acres planted in 2006, traders said. July rice closed 8 cents higher at $10.60 per hundredweight. September ended 5 up at $10.93 and November closed 4 higher at $11.23.
Spreading was a feature as firms rolled out their July positions before first notice day for deliveries on Friday. Commercials were rolling their July shorts spreading July-September and July-November. That led some pit traders to expect lighter first-day July deliveries than forecast on Thursday when roughly 1,000 deliveries were estimated.
Large deliveries were expected due to the weakness in the cash markets amid ample supplies. Weekly export sales were disappointing. USDA reported that 15,300 tonnes of 2006/07 rice were sold for export last week, 57 percent below the previous week. An estimated 3,078 futures and 28 options traded, up from the 968 futures and four options that traded on Wednesday.
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