Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures closed lower on Monday after Egypt cancelled a wheat tender over the weekend, saying prices were "not suitable," traders said.
CBOT wheat closed 2-1/2 to 7-1/4 cents per bushel lower, with May down 6 at $3.67-3/4.
Volume was moderate, estimated at 22,536 futures and 2,937 options.
There was only mild underpinning from news early Monday from the US Department of Agriculture that US exporters switched a sale of 100,000 tonnes of US soft red winter wheat from unknown destinations to China. The wheat is to be shipped in the 2004/05 marketing year.
Traders said the Egyptian snub of US wheat was the overriding factor in a market already hit by profit-taking, slow shipments of wheat by China and recent crop-friendly rainfall in drier areas of the US Plains.
But USDA's weekly export inspections report early Monday showed 1.929 million bushels of wheat were inspected for export to China during the week ended last Thursday.
USDA said total wheat inspected for export was at 20.486 million bushels, within the range of estimates for 18 million to 23 million bushels.
Spill-over pressure also came from a sharp break in corn and soy. Those markets were hit by renewed concerns about the impact of feed demand amid news bird flu had been found in crows in Western Japan and on the discovery of a case of bird flu in Maryland, the fifth US state to report the virus.
Exports were quiet over the weekend. Jordan's state grains buyer is expected to decide soon whether to return to the world wheat market, European traders said on Monday.
There was only one lot of wheat delivered on the March contract on Monday and the ADMIS house account stopped the wheat.
Friday's CFTC commitments data showed large speculators' net long position in CBOT wheat futures for the week ended March 2 at 43,469 lots, down 1,179. They were short 14,476 contracts, down 995 from the week before. For futures and options combined, funds were long 43,982 lots, down 1,545, and short 14,129, down 395.
Technical support in the May contract at $3.72-1/2 was broken, driving the contract to a session low of $3.65-1/2. Resistance was at $3.79-1/2. The nine-day relative strength index for May stood at 26 prior to the open on Monday. Technical traders view a reading of 30 or lower as an oversold market and 70 or over as an overbought market.
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