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CBOT corn closes higher on dry weather outook

CHICAGO: Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed higher on Friday, lifted by forecasts for dry weather in the US Midwest growing region, traders said.

Corn futures closed 2-1/4 to 3-1/4 cents higher with May up 2-3/4 at $2.36.

"The report (USDA prospective plantings) is out of the way and was pretty much neutral and the weather that everyone is looking at now is a drier-type pattern," said Shawn McCambridge, analyst for Prudential Securities.

The supportive weather overwhelmed the bearish flavor of the US Department of Agriculture's quarterly grain stocks and prospective plantings reports released Friday.

USDA listed 2000 corn planting intentions at 77.88 million acres, up 1 percent from 1999 and above trade estimates for 77.50 million acres. Corn stocks as of March 1 were listed at 5.61 billion bushels, against estimates for 5.57 billion.

On the weather front, a mostly dry pattern was seen in the Midwest, where an unseasonably warm and dry winter had depleted soil moisture in many parts.

Weather Services Corp. said grains planting will begin in the coming weeks but may be slowed by dryness unless some significant rain develops. Salomon Smith Barney, in its weather outlook, forecast below-normal rainfall in the Midwest for the next 10 days.

It said there were only two possible showers in the Midwest during the next 10 days and "neither one looks very good."

It said the first rains will fall on Sunday and Monday, with amounts ranging from 0.2 inch to 1.2 inches, with most areas seeing the lighter amounts.

The next rains will fall on April 8 to 9, and the amounts would be very similar to the first, it added.

Funds bought 6,500 lots. Prudential Securities bought 1,500 May and 500 July, Cargill Investor Services bought 600 May, ING Derivatives bought 1,000 July, Carr Futures bought 1,500 May, Cargill Inc. bought 1,200 July, sold 1,500 December, 300 July and 600 May. Tenco Inc. bought 300 December, 100 May and sold 1,000 May.

Corn futures volume was estimated by the CBOT at 80,000 lots, above the 62,740 lots traded Thursday.

Corn options volume was estimated at 25,000 lots. -Reuters