Late buying by commodity funds drove Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures to a higher close, traders said.
CBOT wheat closed 1-1/2 to 3-3/4 cents per bushel higher, with December up 3-3/4 at $3.19-1/4 per bushel. Pit sources said market-on-close buying boosted prices to the day's highs by the close.
FIMAT Futures was a late buyer of 300 December and Cargill Inc sold 500 December. Total fund buying on Wednesday was estimated at least 2,000 lots. Analysts and traders said hopes for a sale of wheat to Pakistan, firm cash markets and slow farmer movement may have aided the advances.
"Wheat stood strong and a lack of movement may have helped it," said Jerry Girdle, analyst for North America Risk Management Inc. Wheat traders continue to focus on the potential for Pakistan to buy wheat.
Trade sources said Pakistan late this week might buy between 500,000 and 1,000,000 tonnes. The market also is paying closer attention to reports of dry weather stress to portions of Australia's wheat crop.
Australia is one of the key global wheat exporting countries. However, wheat futures' upside potential is being hampered by the rebound in global wheat production this year. Better crop weather in key exporting countries led to record-large world wheat output this year.
Technical support in the December contract was at $3.08 per bushel and resistance was at $3.21-1/4. Technicals are at neutral levels with the nine-day relative strength index for December at 53.
Comments
Comments are closed.