CBOT rice ends mixed; speculative sell stops hit

Chicago Board of Trade rough rice futures ended mixed on Monday after speculative sell stops were triggered in May and on lingering uncertainty about the results of an Iraqi rice tender, brokers said.
CBOT rough rice settled up 12 cents per cwt to down 3 cents, with March up 12 cents at $9.95 per cwt and May down 1-1/2 cents at $10.01-1/2.
"The market whipsawed because of the thin volume," one CBOT rice broker said.
"It took an early tumble after Friday's poor close," he added. "And there seemed to be a feeling that it (the CBOT rice market) was no good if it couldn't manage to rally in the face of the sharp rally in other markets."
CBOT soybeans ended up 8 to 38-1/2 cents per bushel on worries about historically tight US soybean supplies amid good global demand plus fears of poor South American soy crops and Brazilian shipping delays. Nearby CBOT wheat futures closed up the daily 30-cent limit, while corn ended up 1 to 9-1/2 cents per bushel.
Light technical sell stops were triggered in CBOT May rough rice futures below $10.00 to about the $9.80 level, the CBOT rice trader said.
"We then came back up on commercial bidding that was not in the pit when the market broke," he added. "And we found some strength from the other markets and from the lack of follow-through selling."
Uncertainty over results of a recent Iraqi tender for 165,000 tonnes of rice also weighed on CBOT rice futures, brokers said.
"There seems to be some feeling that it's not looking good for American rice," the CBOT rice trader said. "Our prices are well above Asian rice prices."
The Iraqi rice tender follows the United Nation's World Food Programme's recent award to Thailand of a tender for 152,500 tonnes of rice for Iraq.
US rice industry officials are hoping to re-enter the Iraqi market. Before 1990, Iraq was one of the largest markets for US long grain rice, averaging 370,000 tonnes per year during the 1980s, and peaking at 513,000 tonnes in 1987. There were nil deliveries on Monday against the CBOT March rice contract. Rice registrations with the CBOT late Friday totalled 900 lots, unchanged from Thursday's count. The CBOT March rough rice futures contracts expires on March 22.
CBOT rough rice estimated volume on Monday was 325 contracts, compared with Friday's volume of 823 lots. Options trade totalled 44 lots.