Spring wheat futures on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange closed lower on Monday in thin trade, following a 3 percent decline in Chicago Board of Trade corn futures, traders said.
"Everything is getting pulled down by corn and soya," one trader said. CBOT corn futures tumbled on a firmer US dollar and prospects for increased US corn seedlings in 2007. December corn ended down 11-1/4 cents at $3.62-3/4 per bushel. MGE December spring wheat settled down 4 cents at $5.08-1/2 per bushel, with most-active March down 3-1/4 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $5.25-1/4.
ADM Investor Services sold 300 March contracts while Man Financial bought 200 March, traders said. Volume was estimated by the exchange at 2,096 contracts, down from 4,972 lots on Friday. Deliveries on the MGE December wheat contract totalled 133 lots, with the Country Hedging house account stopping all the wheat.
ADM issued 131 lots as redeliveries. Weekend export business was quiet, but the US Department of Agriculture on Monday reported that 20.2 million bushels of wheat were inspected for export last week.
The figure was above trade estimates for 14 million to 18 million bushels. However, the government pegged year-to-date wheat inspections at 422.3 million bushels, down 18 percent from a year ago. On Friday's CFTC Commitments of Traders report showed that large speculators expanded their net long position in MGE spring wheat futures for the week ended November 28.
France expects to triple its soft wheat sales to Tunisia to 500,000 tonnes in 2006-2007, from 150,000 tonnes a year earlier, due to short supply of cheaper Black Sea grain on the world market, a French industry official said.
Dry weather is helping speed the harvest of the Argentine wheat crop, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said. On Friday, Argentine farmers had gathered 33 percent of the 5.38 million hectares planted with the grain, nearly 10 points ahead of the year-ago pace.
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