Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures closed mixed but mostly lower on Friday and new contract lows were set amid pressure from the USA's November crop and supply/demand reports, traders said. The market, while ending weak, was underpinned near the close when scattered short covering evolved, triggered by a late closing rally in neighbouring corn and Soya. CBOT wheat closed 1 cent per bushel lower to 1 cent higher, with December unchanged at $3.02-3/4 per bushel.
The new contract low for December is $2.96 per bushel, below the previous lows of $2.97 that was set a month ago, on October 12. The US Department of Agriculture on Friday pegged 2004/05 global wheat-ending stocks at 142.2 million tonnes.
That's up from 141.5 million forecast in October. A 1.0 million-tonne cut in the Australian wheat crop was offset by a rise in the European Union crop. USDA estimated this year's (2004-05) world wheat crop to increase to 616.9 million tonnes compared with the government's forecast in October for 615.8 million tonnes.
US ending stocks for 2004-05 was forecast at 568 million bushels, nearly unchanged from last month's estimate of 569 million. Analysts had expected the stocks to fall to roughly 554 million. The USDA cut a million bushels from its forecast for ending stocks mainly because of a predicted decline of 6.0 million bushels for hard red spring wheat production.
However, that decline was nearly offset by a forecast 5.0 million-bushel increase in soft red winter wheat imports. USDA also reported on Friday that lasts week's export sales of wheat were 657,100 tonnes.
That was above estimates for 300,000 to 400,000 tonnes. Cash basis bids in the Midwest were steady amid a near dearth of farmer selling.
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