Hard red winter wheat futures on the Kansas City Board of Trade settled 2 percent higher Thursday in a technical bounce amid ideas that recent losses were overdone. December ended up 14-3/4 cents or 2 percent at $7.87 per bushel, with March up 15-3/4 cents or 2 percent at $7.99-3/4. December ranged as high as $7.90 and March climbed as high as $8.01.
The KCBT estimated pit volume at 12,545 lots, and electronic volume at 8,385 lots. The gains came after a string of recent losses that saw the December contract lose nearly 5 percent of its value since November 7. Helping support wheat were crop worries in Argentina where temperatures fell to 27 to 31 degrees Fahrenheit early Thursday in the country's key wheat area.
Some estimated that 10 to 15 percent of the wheat belt may have suffered damage. News that Japan's Agriculture Ministry bought 90,000 tonnes of US wheat, along with 20,000 tonnes from Canada and 45,000 of Australian wheat, was supportive.
Also helpful to bulls was word that the French farm ministry cut its soft wheat output estimate to 30.87 million tonnes from 31.27 million tonnes in October. That is down 7 percent from last year.
Dry weather in the US Plains and deteriorating crop conditions remained supportive factors, though forecasts for rain tempered crop worries somewhat. Drought concerns were still seen in Australia, where dry weather has slashed the forecast winter grains crop in the state of New South Wales by half over the past month, the state government said Thursday. The state government cut its production forecast for total winter crops, primarily wheat, to 2.82 million tonnes, from a mid-September estimate of 4.67 million tonnes.
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