HRW wheat basis steady, winterkill talk heard

Spot basis values for hard red winter wheat were steady Friday, with movement quiet through the Plains states in the aftermath of a winter snowstorm that left in its wake some fears of winterkill damage, merchants said.
Temperatures plunged to 10 degrees below zero Fahrenheit Thursday and this morning ranged only 4 degrees below zero to about 9 degrees through Kansas, the top US wheat-producing state. Conditions were also frigid in the HRW wheat-growing areas of Colorado, Oklahoma and Nebraska.
Soil moisture and snowcover in some areas should mitigate the risk to the new crop, but already too-dry areas could suffer, wheat watchers said.
Meanwhile, the US Department of Agriculture said that 2005/06 US wheat ending stocks were pegged at 530 million bushels, above an average of analysts' estimates for 523 million.
And in overnight export business, South Korea bought 22,000 tonnes of US wheat.