Wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade settled nearly unchanged on Thursday in thin pre-holiday trade, but finished the year down about 20 percent as global stockpiles grew. Markets will be closed on Friday for the New Year's Day holiday. Front-month CBOT wheat settled at $4.70 a bushel, down nearly $1.20 from a year ago, or 20.3 percent, reflecting weak export demand for US supplies amid plentiful world supplies and a strong dollar.
Front-month K.C. hard red winter wheat rose 3 cents on Thursday to $4.68-1/2 a bushel, but fell 25.2 percent for the year. Spot MGEX spring wheat futures ended up 1 cent on Thursday at $4.93-1/4 a bushel, but posted an annual decline of 20.7 percent and closed out the year below $5 for the first time since 2005. CBOT wheat found underlying support this week from short-covering and concerns about flooding in the US Midwest, plus a cold spell in parts of Russia's winter wheat belt.
Commodity funds hold a large net short position in CBOT wheat, leaving the market vulnerable to bouts of short-covering. USDA reported export sales of US wheat in the week to December 24 at 363,500 tonnes for 2015/16 and 18,900 tonnes for 2016/17, in line with trade expectations.
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