CBOT wheat futures up

Wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade closed higher on Monday on a short-covering bounce from early declines along with spillover strength from corn and soybeans, traders said.
"We were a follower. There was nothing here," one CBOT floor source said. CBOT March wheat settled up 4-1/4 cents at $4.90 per bushel, rebounding off a session low of $4.80-3/4. Deferred months ended up 4 to 10 cents.
Funds were net even on the day, traders said. Volume was light, estimated by the CBOT at 38,875 wheat futures and 2,739 options. March corn ended up 2-1/4 cents at $3.70-3/4 and January soybeans closed up 10-3/4 cents at $6.66-3/4, leading the grains floor higher on short-covering.
CBOT wheat got off to a choppy start as initial attempts to rebound from Friday's 2 percent slide faltered. Early declines in corn and Kansas City Board of Trade wheat futures added pressure. But wheat prices r and up slightly from the average trade guess of 433 million.
Most of the increase was due to a 25-million-bushel drop in US wheat exports, to 900 million bushels. "These changes were pretty much expected. We're having trouble with the export program, everybody is fully aware of that. So the decrease in the (US) exports was pretty much what people were thinking," Prudential Financial analyst Shawn McCambridge said.
The USDA also raised its estimate of world wheat ending stocks to 120.7 million tonnes, from 118.8 million in November. In export news, Egypt bought 260,000 tonnes of wheat over the weekend, including 55,000 tonnes of US soft red winter and 60,000 tonnes of US soft white wheat. But the fact that Egypt also bought from Argentina, France and Russia tempered the bullish nature of the purchase, underscoring strong export competition.
The USDA reported weekly export inspections of US wheat at 18.3 million bushels, within a range of trade estimates for 15 million to 19 million. There was no word on results of an Iraqi tender for 100,000 tonnes of wheat that traders said closed on Saturday.
Private forecaster Meteorlogix said warm and dry weather would begin depleting soil moisture reserves in the US Plains and increase crop stress, especially in the western areas. The CFTC's Commitments of Traders report on Friday showed that large speculators expanded their net long position in CBOT wheat futures and options in the week ended December 5.