CHICAGO, May 19 (Reuters) - U.S. rice futures on the Chicago Board of Trade closed mixed on Monday after a volatile session, with the nearbys ending firm on a bounce after last week's sell-off, traders said.
* July rice <RRN8> saw a near 90-cent trading range before closing 23-1/2 cents higher at $20.30 per hundredweight. The back months ended 9 cents higher to 5 cents lower.
* Rice has been pressured by outlooks for a record world crop in 2008, after notching a record top in late April on supply fears and hoarding.
* The price spread between U.S. cash and futures prices is narrowing, a sign of stronger cash markets and a break from a long-term trend in which futures were priced significantly higher than cash.
* The daily limit for rice reverts to 50 cents from 75 cents as the market did not close limit up or limit down.
* USDA reported after the markets closed that U.S. rice planting was catching up, with 84 percent seeded versus the seasonal average of 87 percent.
* However, the top rice state of Arkansas was lagging, with just 75 percent of the crop seeded compared with the five-year pace of 94 percent. Additionally, U.S. emergence was behind at 60 percent versus the usual pace of 74 percent.
* The government rated 65 percent of the crop good/excellent, down from a year ago when 71 percent was in good/excellent shape.
* The Philippines seeks 200,000 tonnes of rice from Japan. [ID:nT348559]
* The Philippines to tender next week for 141,440 tonnes of rice. [ID:nMAN221401]
* Iraq's Ministry of Trade issued a freight tender to ship up to 120,000 tonnes of Thai rice, said Star Trading & Marine Inc, the ministry's freight agent.
* South Korea said it would sell 4,000 tonnes of imported rice to noodle-makers at nearly half the normal price in a bid to tame soaring domestic food prices. [ID:nSEO365440]
For a detailed report click on [GRA/]. (Reporting by Christine Stebbins; editing by Jim Marshall) ((christine.stebbins@thomsonreuters.com; +1 312 408 8720; Reuters Messaging:christine.stebbins.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: MARKETS CBOT RICE
CHICAGO, May 19 (Reuters) - U.S. corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade closed lower on Monday on prospects for good planting weather in the week ahead and weak cash markets, traders said.
* CBOT July corn <CN8> closed down 4-1/4 cents at $5.86-3/4 per bushel. New-crop December <CZ8> fell 3-3/4 cents to close at $6.13.
* July corn fell to a three-week low, breaking through support at $5.84. The contract also closed below its 50-day moving average for a second straight day.
* Funds sold 3,000 contracts, traders said.
* A major shift in the U.S. Midwest weather pattern to warmer, drier conditions should promote corn and soybean plantings, a forecaster said. [ID:nN19450214]
* The week ahead will be longest stretch all spring for the eastern Corn Belt to plant corn. The west was open last week, which promoted planting there.
* After the close, USDA said the U.S. corn crop was 73 percent planted as of Sunday, behind the five-year average of 88 percent. Traders expected progress at around 75 percent.
* U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison introduced legislation to freeze the federal mandate for corn-based ethanol at 9 billion gallons, contending that using the grain for fuel was pressuring the food supply. [ID:nN19338610]
* But U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said ethanol is not having a "major" impact on food prices, and downplayed calls for changes to biofuels programs. [ID:nN19506605]
* Weak cash market for corn at the U.S. Gulf added pressure. Midwest basis bids for corn eased at river terminals, reflecting the drop in CIF values at the Gulf, dealers said. Export demand was quiet.
* Trade data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed that large speculators widened their net long position in corn to 180,291 contracts in the week ended May 13, up 7,300 lots.
* CBOT July oats <ON8> closed 3 cents lower at $3.91 per bushel, with back months down 1-1/2 to 3 cents. (Reporting by Julie Ingwersen; editing by Jim Marshall) ((julie.ingwersen@thomsonreuters.com; +1 312-408-8720; Reuters Messaging: julie.ingwersen.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: MARKETS CORN CBOT
By Charles Abbott
WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - U.S. food prices will rise by 5 percent this year, the largest increase since 1990 and propelled by sharply higher prices for bread, cookies and other bakery products, the Agriculture Department said on Monday.
It would be the second year in a row of high food-price inflation, with another year or two of large increases expected. Until 2007, food prices tended to rise more slowly than the overall U.S. inflation rate.
"This year, we expect food prices to increase about 5 percent," Joe Glauber, USDA chief economist, told reporters. At the start of the year, USDA foresaw a 3.5 percent rise.
Prices of cereals and bakery products are forecast to zoom by 8 percent this year, up 2 percentage points from USDA's initial forecast.
"That's what happens when wheat prices double in six months," said Ephraim Leibtag, the USDA economist who tracks food prices.
Sharp increases are forecast for eggs and for fats and oils this year. Cereals and bakery goods account for a larger share of food spending than do eggs and fats and oils.
Americans spend more than $1 trillion a year on groceries, snacks, carry-out food and meals at restaurants. Farmers receive 20 cents of the food dollar, which dilutes the impact of record-high crop prices. The rest goes to processing, labor, transportation and distribution.
Meat, poultry and fish prices, forecast for minor increases this year, will be a leading reason for higher food prices in 2009, said Leibtag, because high feed prices will limit meat production.
Ten percent of U.S. food spending is on meat and poultry. (Reporting by Charles Abbott, editing by Matthew Lewis) ((chuck.abbott@thomsonreuters.com; + 1 202 898 8319: Reuters Messaging: chuck.abbott.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: FOOD USDA/FORECAST
SAO PAULO, May 19 (Reuters) - Farmland prices in Brazil have risen sharply of late, driven up by rising international commodities prices, especially grains, agricultural analysts AgraFNP said on Monday.
The analysts said the average price for a hectare (2.471 acres) of farmland in Brazil rose 16.4 percent in the two-month period of March-April from the same period in 2007 to 4,135 reais ($2,506). Compared with January-February this year, prices have risen 3.42 percent.
Prime farmland in the southern producing states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Parana for the first time since early 2007 surpassed the cost of land in the sugarcane rich southeast states, AgraFNP said in a report.
"The southern region prices have roughly pulled even with the southeast in the past two months," AngraFNP analyst Jacqueline Bierhals said. "Most of this shift in position is due to the search for farmland for grains in Parana, which appreciated a lot."
The average price of a hectare of productive land in the south rose to 7,737 reais ($4,689) in March-April from 7,288 reais in the previous two month period.
"Prices rose in Brazil generally, but the south had a very strong rise. They are lands that were already expansive and had found space to rise further," she said.
The average price of land in the southeast rose to 7,450 reais over the period from 7,317 reais in the first two months of the year.
In Sao Paulo, Brazil's main sugarcane producing state located in the southeast region, the average price of a hectare rose to 11,824 reais from 11,604 reais in January-February.
Bierhals said this recent rise in the southeast was probably more to do with the expansion of pasture land, grain planting and reforestation in the state than demand for land to grow sugar cane as sugar and ethanol prices have not been that attractive lately.
In the center-west region, where much of Brazil's future grain and sugarcane expansion will occur, average land prices rose 3.5 percent in March-April from the previous two months but were up 40 percent on the same period in 2007, at 3,246 reais a hectare.
Bierhals said the strong rise in the center-west was due to the strong demand for new land from big productive projects seeking large parcels of farm land, many of which are being funded by international groups.
She said that the search for land in the region was focusing on cleared area or pasture as investors are keen to avoid potential legal or environmental conflicts that might be incurred by setting up operations in legal Amazon territory.
($1=1.65 reais) (Reporting by Roberto Samora; Translating by Reese Ewing; Editing by Christian Wiessner)
((reese.ewing@reuters.com; +5511-5644-7721; Reuters Messaging: reese.ewing.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: BRAZIL FARMLAND
NEW YORK, May 19 (Reuters) - U.S. copper futures ended lower on Monday after a large build in London warehouse stocks and lingering concerns over China's near-term demand outlook slowed the market's bullish momentum from late last week, analysts said.
NOTE: For detailed report, click on [MET/L].
* Copper for July delivery <HGN8> settled down 5.10 cents at $3.7755 a lb on the COMEX metals division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Range spanned from $3.7425 to $3.8580 -- considered an inside day as it holds inside of Friday's range of $3.7395-$3.8595.
* By 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT), COMEX copper volumes reached 13,280 lots. Final volumes on Friday totaled 17,102 lots.
* Open interest in the market rose 934 lots to 99,009 contracts open as of May 16.
* Copper trapped within relatively broad trading range, with a weak U.S. dollar, South American labor issues, and last week's earthquake in China running up against rising stockpiles in London and questionable demand levels.
* The number of countervailing forces will prevent a major breakout in either direction on most metals - MF Global metals analyst Edward Meir.
* London Metal Exchange (LME) copper stockpiles rose by 1,500 tonnes on Monday to 122,725 tonnes, up 13 percent during the past two weeks. Since the start of the year, LME copper stocks are down 38 percent.
* COMEX copper stocks fell by 102 short tons to 10,658 short tons on Friday.
* The key factor for the market is the lack of Chinese buying interest - David Rinehimer, director of Citi Futures Perspective in New York.
* China's imports of unwrought copper dropped 17 percent in the first four months of the year, but demand could see a pick-up in the coming months as the country rebuilds cities, factories and power networks devastated by last week's powerful earthquake. [ID:nPEK282260]
* Copper prices supported by concerns of supply tightness after subcontract workers at Codelco, Chile's state-owned copper giant, threatened to resume strikes that they had halted last week. [ID:nN16562011]
* Weekly trade data showed the net long position held by noncommercial investors in U.S. copper futures fell to 2-1/2 month lows during the week of May 13.
* Noncommercial investors were net long on 4,188 lots of copper compared with the previous week's tally of 7,194 lots, according to data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. [ID:nN16443865]
* LME three-month copper <MCU3> was last quoted at $8,315/8,320 a tonne, down $124 from Friday's close, when the metal rallied 1.5 percent. (Reporting by Chris Kelly; Editing by John Picinich) ((chris.kelly@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 897 1898; Reuters Messaging: chris.kelly.reuters.com@reuters.net))
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