November rice closed 18 cents weaker at $7.06 per hundredweight, while January was 20 cents lower at $7.33. Speculators and funds were late sellers when sell-stops were hit in January from $7.44 to $7.36, driving the contract 21 cents lower to $7.32.
"Stops were at $7.44, $7.40, $7.39 and $7.36," one trader said. Most of the volume was moving to the January contract as the November delivery period begins next on Monday.
Late sellers were Catkin and Arbour, Reface and Man Financial, traders said. The session firms were rolling their November positions to the deferred months.
That contributed to the heavy trade volume, traders said. An estimated 1,962-rice future and 52 options traded. That compared to 1,433 contracts traded on Wednesday.
The November-January spread traded 27-28 cents and the January-March traded at 52 to 52-1/2 cents. The price carry remains at historically high levels due to ample supplies of rice and weakness in the cash markets, traders said. Rising interest rates also increased the cost to store rice.