US MIDDAY: wheat climbs on fund short covering

Wheat futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were higher early on Thursday on fund short covering and supportive export news, traders said.
At 10:19 am CDT (1519 GMT), CBOT wheat was up 5 to 7-1/4 cents per bushel, with December up 7 at $3.32-1/4 per bushel.
"Funds have been short for a long time and they're covering. It was a pretty good technical close yesterday and the exports were supportive," a trader said.
USDA on Thursday said export sales of US wheat last week totalled 805,700 tonnes, above estimates for 400,000 to 600,000 tonnes.
Export activity overnight included Japan's purchase of 130,000 tonnes of wheat, with 85,000 tonnes coming from the United States.