Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures closed higher on Friday amid technical buying including short-covering, and fears that a weekend storm would damage Australia's wheat harvest, traders said. CBOT March soft red winter wheat settled up 5-1/2 cents at $4.38-1/2 per bushel. For the week, the contract rose 3-3/4 cents, or 0.9 percent, snapping a two-week decline.
K.C. March hard red winter wheat ended up 6 cents at $4.37-1/2 a bushel Friday and MGEX March spring wheat rose 9-3/4 cents at $6.31-1/2. Heavy rains in eastern Australia forecast to intensify over the weekend are threatening to wipe out or damage up to 4 million tonnes of wheat due to be harvested soon, with many grain storage sites forced to close.
Commodity funds hold a large net short position in CBOT wheat, leaving the market vulnerable to bouts of short-covering. A third straight daily decline in the US dollar index lent support. A weaker dollar tends to make US grains more competitive on the world market. The CME Group reported 1,520 deliveries against CBOT December soft red winter wheat futures and 556 K.C. hard red winter wheat deliveries. The MGEX reported 398 December spring wheat deliveries.
Comments
Comments are closed.