CBoT wheat futures down

Wheat futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed lower on Friday as improving harvest weather in the US Plains prompted selling after last week's run-up to 11-year highs, traders said.
"There is drier weather for wheat harvest, so they should make some pretty good progress. The six- to 10-day looks like it may be a little wetter, but for now harvest weather is better," Fimat USA analyst Dan Cekander said. Spillover weakness from corn and soyabeans added pressure to a wheat market that was seen as technically overbought.
The nine-day relative strength index for CBoT July wheat stood at 73 ahead of the open, within the 70-to-100 range that technical traders view as an overbought signal. CBoT July wheat settled at $5.92-1/4 per bushel, down 13-3/4 cents or 2.3 percent. September ended down 17 cents at $6.05 and December was down 15-1/2 at $6.12-1/2.
Funds sold an estimated 4,000 wheat contracts, along with 15,000 in soyabeans and up to 20,000 in corn, traders said. Realignment of the CBoT, KCBT and MGE inter-market wheat spreads was a factor. Minneapolis spring wheat continued to gain ground on the other markets, reflecting commercial demand for high-protein spring wheat amid concerns about the quality of the US winter wheat crop.
The setback in wheat futures appeared to attract some fresh export demand. After the close, Egypt said it wanted to buy 55,000 to 60,000 tonnes of US, French, Australian, German, Argentine and/or Kazakh wheat for shipment July 16-31.
Tender results were expected on Saturday and could influence wheat futures market direction on Sunday night. In other export news, Morocco again postponed a tender to import 298,636 tonnes of soft wheat, setting a new date of June 26.
Algeria bought at least 150,000 tonnes of optional origin milling wheat this week, European traders said.
Japan will hold a regular import tender on June 27 for 110,000 tonnes of US, Canadian and Australian wheat. Traders were expecting Statistics Canada on Tuesday to lower its estimate of Canadian all-wheat area for 2007.
The average trade estimate was for 23.4 million acres, down from Statscan's March 31 figure of 23.8 million and the 2006 figure of 26.4 million. The CBoT July wheat contract stayed above most key moving averages but neared the 10-day MA of $5.84-1/2.