Wheat futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed lower on Monday in a light technical setback from Friday's rally amid a lack of supportive news, traders said. Kansas City Board of Trade wheat futures led the way down, weighed by hedge-related selling. But trade was thin as CBoT wheat drifted downward and fell to session lows near the close.
"It's kind of the path of least resistance right now. We're waiting for a new fundamental trigger. We've traded the production and quality concerns for quite a while," Prudential Financial analyst Shawn McCambridge said.
CBoT September wheat ended down 10-1/2 cents at $5.99-1/2 per bushel, triggering small sell-stops as it broke below its 20-day moving average of $6.02-1/2. December fell 9-1/2 cents to close at $6.13 and back months were down 11 to up 1 cent.
Funds sold 2,000 contracts, traders said. Volume was on the light side, estimated by the CBoT at 47,431 wheat futures and 10,437 options. The spot July contract, which is in delivery, fell 12 cents to close at $5.88-1/2. Open interest in July stood at 1,792 contracts ahead of the open. Deliveries against July were light at only two lots. A Banc of America customer stopped the wheat.
Disappointing weekly export inspections data weighed on the market. The US Department of Agriculture said 10.8 million bushels of US wheat were inspected for export last week, well below trade estimates for 18 million to 21 million.
Export business was mostly quiet over the weekend. But traders said there was talk that Brazil was seeking US wheat and may have bought more than the 25,000 tonnes of US HRW wheat that was reported in the USDA's last weekly export sales report.
Fresh export demand emerged after the close as Egypt's main wheat buying agency said on Monday it wanted to buy 55,000 to 60,000 tonnes of US, French, Australian, German, Argentine, Canadian and/or Kazakh wheat for shipment August 11-20.
Results of the tender were expected on Tuesday and could shape opening calls for CBoT wheat. Taiwanese millers were set to tender on Tuesday for 88,890 tonnes of US wheat. Also after the close, the USDA said the US winter wheat harvest was 58 percent complete, up from 40 percent the previous week but still lagging the five-year average of 65 percent.
However, the pace was ahead of normal in the Midwest soft red winter wheat belt. Harvest was 96 percent complete in Illinois and 81 percent complete in Ohio, ahead of those states' respective five-year averages of 91 percent and 34 percent.
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