CBOT wheat ends up on late speculative buying

Late speculative buying led by FIMAT Futures purchase of 700 lots of May boosted Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures to a higher close on Tuesday, traders said.
Refco Inc also was a late buyer of the market, pit sources said.
CBOT wheat closed unchanged to 2-1/2 cents per bushel higher, with May up 2-1/2 at $4.16-1/2.
Futures volume was large estimated at 31,740 futures. Option trade was seen at 2,933 lots.
Wheat languished at lower levels most of the day as the market underwent at least a temporary profit-taking setback after the rally early Monday to new contract highs. And additional spill-over selling came from the soy complex on a setback there after the market recently surged to fresh 15-1/2-year highs.
There was nothing in the export market overnight to drive wheat futures higher. But some underpinning, especially in KCBT new-crop July, was coming from concern about dry weather stress in parts of the US Plains HRW wheat crop.
However, the Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service on Monday said the condition of the Kansas crop improved last week amid good crop growth in the eastern two-thirds of the state.
The agency said 43 percent of the crop was rated as good to excellent as of Sunday, up from 37 percent the prior week.
Yet dryness continues to plague the crop in north-western Kansas, eastern Colorado and south-western Nebraska.
The drier areas of the US Great Plains hard red winter wheat region will likely get only light rain showers off and on Tuesday through Saturday, a private forecaster said on Tuesday.
"The best chance for some rain would be on Friday or Saturday, but there probably will only be sprinkles," said Meteorlogix forecaster Joel Burgio.
Drought or near-drought conditions have been hampering growth and development of the crop in several key acreage areas of the Plains, including the No 1 wheat producer Kansas.
The nine-day relative strength index for May stood at 61 prior to the open on Tuesday. Chartists view an RSI of 30 or less as an oversold market and 70 or more as an overbought market.