Wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade settled higher in thin trade on Friday, rallying from early declines as soyabean futures surged to contract highs, traders said.
March wheat settled up 1 cent at $4.61-1/4 per bushel, rebounding after breaking below support at its 200-day moving average of $4.57-1/2. The contract was down 2-1/4 cents for the week. May closed up 1-1/4 cents at $4.75-3/4 and July was up 3/4 cent at $4.83-1/4. Funds bought 1,000 contracts, traders said. Volume was light, estimated by the CBoT at 35,391 wheat futures and 2,173 options.
Soyabeans led the grains floor higher, with March pushing to a contract high of $7.38 a bushel on technical buying and a trade estimate for reduced US 2007 soya acreage. There was no significant news to steer wheat futures. Fundamentals remained bearish, including expectations of a rebound in world wheat production for 2007 and a sluggish export pace.
India expects its wheat harvest to rebound to 74 million tonnes this year, a food ministry official said Friday, following a crop shortfall in 2006 that prompted India's first wheat imports in six years.
CBoT wheat had underlying support from a slight threat of winterkill in the US Midwest soft red winter wheat belt, where snow cover is spotty. Lows over the next five days were expected to range from the single digits to -15 degrees Fahrenheit.
"The central portion of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, there's not much snow, so they could be the most vulnerable to potential winterkill," DTN Meteorlogix forecaster Mike Palmerino said. The nine-day relative strength index for the CBoT March wheat contract settled unchanged at 44, in neutral technical territory.
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