Spring wheat futures on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange fell 3 percent on Wednesday on year-end profit-taking by investment funds, traders said. MGE wheat closed unchanged to 16-1/4 cents per bushel lower, with December down 14-1/2 at $4.92 per bushel.
An estimated 8,797 futures traded, more than double the 4,191 contracts that traded on Tuesday. Traders said wheat futures had been boosted sharply this year by investment fund buying and some of those funds were liquidating at least a portion of the long positions.
Traders were eyeing outside markets on Wednesday and got some bearish input from a firm dollar and weak gold while also awaiting results of an Iraqi tender for optional-origin wheat. The United States and Canada are the top contenders to land an Iraqi tender for 100,000 tonnes of wheat on Saturday, US traders said.
Meanwhile, Iraq has begun shipping some of the 700,000 tonnes of US wheat purchased this year, they said. After the close, Egypt said it was seeking 55,000 to 60,000 tonnes of US, French, Canadian, Australian, German and/or Argentine wheat for shipment January 5-16.
Egypt was also seeking 30,000 or 60,000 tonnes of Russian wheat, UK milling wheat, or Syrian wheat. Crop weather in the United States was generally satisfactory for the US winter wheat crop that is entering its winter dormancy period but there are a few pockets of dryness.
Meteorlogix weather on Wednesday cited the potential for beneficial moisture next week in the US Plains wheat region and said soil moisture remains short in northern China. China's wheat output could fall 3.4 percent to 99.5 million tonnes next year because of drought, a Chinese think tank said on Wednesday.
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