Hard red winter wheat futures on the Kansas City Board of Trade ended lower Monday as profit-taking and improving global crop outlooks left wheat divorced from gains in soybeans, traders said. The September wheat contract ended down 22-1/4 cents at $8.77-3/4 per bushel, with December down 23 cents at $9.00.
The market opened higher, following gains in Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures. But a lack of follow-through allowed the wheat market to sag and then turn sharply lower, aided by a downturn in CBOT corn. Profit-taking amid ideas that wheat prices were overbought and talk of rising global wheat supplies also favoured bears. Iran bought 150,000-200,000 tonnes of milling wheat from Kazakhstan in a tender for 100,000 tonnes.
Traders said they believed Iran was trying to keep buying from the United States to a minimum. Syria tendered on Monday to buy 120,000 tonnes of soft wheat of any origin. Egypt has wheat stocks of 3.574 million tonnes, including wheat on order, enough to last it 4-1/2 months. Russia may harvest 95 million tonnes of grain in 2008. Forecasts called for improved rainfall in Australia's wheat areas; more rain was needed in Argentina.
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