Spot basis bids for hard red winter wheat in the US Plains were unchanged on Thursday with crop concerns persisting and movement mostly lacklustre, merchants said.
"The Gulf is just dead, there is nothing going on there," said one Kansas City cash trader. There was some competition in the domestic market for higher protein wheat, but wheat supplies with protein levels under 12 percent were on the defensive, particularly in Midwestern marketing channels, according to cash sources.
Meanwhile, harvest through the central Plains was rapidly approaching, seen at no more than two weeks out in central and southern Oklahoma, wheat watchers said.
Cold weather early Thursday in northern parts of the US Plains hard red winter wheat region had been a concern but wheat watchers said early Thursday morning it did not appear temperatures dipped low enough to do much damage.
In export news Thursday, USDA said export sales of US wheat last week totalled 413,700 tonnes (old-crop/new-crop), above estimates for 200,000 to 350,000 tonnes.
Also, Japan bought 50,000 tonnes of wheat from the United States and 40,000 tonnes from Canada. There were hopes for a sale of wheat to Iraq and India.
Australian Crop Forecasters pegged Australia's 2006/07 wheat crop at 24.4 million tonnes, roughly the same as last year.
Mixed to firmer pricing action in the futures market at the Kansas City Board of Trade was expected Thursday as traders await the USDA's crop production report Friday.
An average of trade estimates for all winter wheat production was pegged Tuesday at 1.373 billion bushels, 8 percent lower than 2005 production. The HRW winter wheat crop was pegged at 757 million bushels, down 19 percent from 2005.
The futures market closed 1 cent higher to 8-3/4 cents lower on Wednesday, with the July contract down 2-3/4 cents at $4.65-1/4 and September down 3-3/4 cents at $4.70.
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