Hard red spring wheat futures on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange ended down on Thursday as slipover weakness from Chicago Board of Trade wheat and corn pushed the market to one-month lows, traders said. Both wheat markets firmed at the open, but quickly turned lower on a lack of follow-through buying and sluggish export demand.
Traders estimated that funds sold 4,000 wheat contracts in Chicago, 1,000 in Kansas City and 1,000 in Minneapolis. May spring wheat ended down 7-3/4 cents at $4.96-3/4 per bushel, dropping below its 200-day moving average of $5.02-1/4. Sell-stops were triggered at around 4.98 dollar, traders said. July closed down 7-1/2 cents at $5.06 and new-crop December was down 7-1/4 at 5.17 dollar.
Volume was estimated by the exchange at 6,403 contracts. The May/July spread traded lightly at a carry of 8 to 8-1/2 cents, unchanged from Wednesday, and cash markets were quiet.
The National Weather Service issued a heavy snow warning for northeast North Dakota, a prime spring wheat production area, with 6 to 8 inches of snow expected on Thursday afternoon. Traders were awaiting acreage estimates expected on Friday from private analytical firm Informa Economics. The market is anticipating a drop in United States spring wheat plantings for 2007.
Weekly export data was mediocre. The United States Department of Agriculture reported export sales of United States wheat last week at 486,900 tonnes, near the low end of estimates for 400,000 to 600,000 tonnes. In overnight business, Japan bought 116,000 tonnes of Canadian Australian and United States wheat at its regular weekly tender. South Korea bought 22,600 tonnes of States wheat.
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