US Plains hard red winter wheat basis bids held steady Friday, with many merchants either taking a dime protection or sitting on the sidelines with no flat price contracts available ahead of expected sharp price declines in futures.
Corn and wheat futures were expected to drop Friday after the US Department of Agriculture issued seeding and stocks data that forecast 2007 US corn acres at 90.454 million, above analysts' estimates for 87.987 million and up sharply from last year's 78.327 million.
USDA pegged 2007 US wheat acres at 60.303 million, above an average of analysts' estimates for 59.686 million as well as last year's 57.344 million. As for stocks, USDA pegged the US wheat supply on March 1 at 856 million bushels, below an average of analysts' estimates for 881 million and last year's 972 million.
The Kansas City Board of Trade May contract closed Thursday up 1-3/4 cents at $4.72-1/4 per bushel while July gained 1/4 to $4.75-1/4. Protein premiums for railcar wheat to and through Kansas City jumped a dime a bushel for ordinary wheat and were up 4 cents for 11.00 percent protein through 11.60-pro supplies. The scale saw a 5-cent gain for 13.80-pro wheat.
Meanwhile, Spain's Agriculture Ministry estimated farmers planted 1.97 million hectares of wheat this year, slightly less than its previous forecast and compared with 1.96 million in 2006. Also, Taiwan's Flour Mills Association on Friday sealed a deal to buy 43,000 tonnes of US wheat from Toepfer, a market source said. The deal includes 11,910 tonnes of hard red winter wheat.
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