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CBOT rice ends mostly lower on USDA report

CHICAGO: Rough rice futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed mostly lower on Friday amid pressure from the USDA's quarterly stocks reports.

CBOT rice settled 6 cents per hundredweight (cwt) lower to 1/2 cent higher, with May up 1/2 at $5.83-1/2. All other months were lower, with July off 1 cent at $6.14 and September off 5 cents at $6.91.

The US Department of Agriculture, in its report released before the market opened, listed rough rice stocks as of March 1 at 90.2 million cwt, up 12 percent from a year ago.

Milled rice stocks totalled 4.57 million cwt, up 5 percent from a year ago.

"The report was not friendly," a CBOT trader said. "There was early selling because of the report but losses were limited by short covering," he added.

He said Term Commodities was a buyer of May and July contracts.

Rice futures volume was estimated by the CBOT at 450 lots, compared to 668 traded on Thursday. -Reuters