Hard red winter wheat futures on the Kansas City Board of Trade closed sharply lower on Friday in a setback after the release of USDA's October crop production and supply/demand reports, traders said.
Traders said supportive numbers in the USDA reports had been factored into the wheat market, leading to a profit-taking setback after the strong limit-up price rally on Thursday. The nearby KCBT December and March contracts briefly fell the 30-cent limit on Friday, matching a limit drop in Chicago Board of Trade wheat.
KCBT December settled down 18-1/4 cents at $8.67-3/4 per bushel, with March down 16-1/4 at $8.75. New-crop July ended down 1/4 cent on $6.85-1/2, gaining ground against old-crop months on spreads. Open-outcry volume was estimated by the exchange at 10,411 contracts and another 6,222 contracts traded electronically.
USDA forecast global ending wheat stocks for 2007/08 at 106.97 million tonnes, down from 112.97 million in September. USDA cut its estimate of Australia's wheat crop to 13.5 million tonnes, from 21 million in September and below the Australian government's latest forecast of 15.5 million.
USDA pegged 2007/08 US wheat ending stocks at 307 million bushels, above an average of analyst estimates for 289 million but below USDA's September forecast for 362 million. If realised, the figure of 307 million would be the lowest US wheat carryout since 1948/49.
In its weekly export sales report, USDA said 1,343,000 tonnes of US wheat sold for export last week (old and new crop combined), near the high end of a range of trade estimates for 1,100,000 to 1,400,000 tonnes. In other wheat news, the French farm ministry cut its soft wheat production estimate to 31.3 million tonnes, from 31.7 million last month, and down 6 percent from last year.
An Indian government official said the country's wheat stocks comfortable. In Australia, good rainfall in the country's north-east grain belt in the past week came too late to help the wheat crop as harvesting began, but lighter rain in the south did benefit drought-hit crops.
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