Wheat futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed lower on Friday on pressure from the delivery market and from forecasts for showers in the US Plains winter wheat-growing region, traders said.
CBOT wheat closed unchanged to 6-3/4 cents per bushel lower, with March down 6-3/4 at $3.80-3/4. May was down 5-1/2 at $3.90-3/4.
Friday was first notice day for deliveries on the March contract and 1,770 lots of wheat were issued, above trade expectations for 500 to 1,500 lots. Commercials delivered wheat because the financial incentive to deliver was greater than the potential returns in the cash market.
The ADM house account posted 1,173 lots and Term Commodities stopped 545 lots. Registrations of wheat with the CBOT late Thursday jumped to 2,514 lots from the 1,960 lots late Wednesday.
Some forecasts for showers by the weekend in the drier areas of the US Plains winter wheat region also were weighing on prices.
Dry weather has been stressing the hard red winter wheat crop in parts of the western Plains region. Meteorlogix weather service early Friday said there was a chance of light to moderate rain or snow in the West over the weekend.
Exports were quiet overnight, and there were no signs or talk of any significant export happenings for the weekend.
Wheat futures surged to one-month highs early in the week following confirmation that China was buying US wheat. However, wheat futures began falling later in the week on speculative profit-taking.
Technical support in the March contract at $3.83-1/2 per bushel was broken, driving the contract to a session low of $3.79. Resistance was at $3.89-1/2.
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