Rough rice futures at the Chicago Board of Trade settled lower on a technical setback on Wednesday after a lightly traded session, traders said. Weakness in other CBOT markets drifted to rice, with little fresh news to counter the bearish sentiment in grains. Prices kept within recent ranges. March rice settled 3 cents lower at $6.65 per hundredweight and May closed 4-1/2 cents weaker at $6.89.

CBOT wheat closed 3-4 cents lower and corn was about a penny weaker across the board after several months made contract lows. Reface Fiat Futures and Man Financial were the featured sellers in rice.

Firms were also rolling their March positions before first notice day on February 28.

Estimated volume was light at 276 futures and 48 options. That compared to 761 futures traded on Tuesday.

The market was weaker despite rising global prices for rice. The USDA increased its weekly world market price for long grain rough rice this week by 5 cents to $6.46 per cwt.

Copyright Reuters, 2005