Hard red winter wheat futures on the Kansas City Board of Trade ended sharply lower on Tuesday in profit-taking following Monday's rally, traders said. The December ended down 28-1/4 cents, or 3.2 percent, at $8.59-3/4 per bushel, after hitting the 30-cent limit down at $8.58.
March settled 26 cents, or 3 percent, lower at $8.68-1/2 after falling as low as $8.66-1/2. The close left December with a nine-day relative strength index of 49, near the midway point of 50 between oversold and overbought indicators. December rose at the opening bell to $8.94 and March climbed to $9.00 before the reversal set in.
Losses accelerated as the market failed to find confirmation of reports that Russia was considering an export tariff increase, traders said. "There was a knee-jack reaction" to the talk of a Russian export tariff increase of up to 50 percent, one trader said. "The thing is that it is unsupported conjecture."
Also limiting gains was news that Japan was offering to buy 20,000 tonnes of Australian standard white wheat at a weekly tender, and a report that SovEcon has raised its Russian wheat output forecast for 2007 upward to 47.0 million to 48.25 million tonnes from the previous 45.5 million to 47.0 million due mainly to a larger-than-expected crop in Siberia.
SovEcon estimated Russia's wheat exports in October at a record-high 2.2 million to 2.4 million tonnes. USDA said Monday afternoon that 82 percent of the US winter wheat crop had been seeded, slightly behind the 84 percent five-year average. Fifty-seven percent of the crop has emerged compared with the five-year average of 64 percent.
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