Soft red winter wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade rallied on Tuesday amid signs of improving export demand along with strength in the corn market, traders said.
The busy export docket featured Jordan buying 50,000 tonnes of wheat from Syria and South Korea buying 23,000 tonnes from the United States, while European traders said Turkey would tender Thursday for 200,000 tonnes of optional-origin soft wheat.
India planned to launch an import tender on December 10 for 350,000 tonnes of wheat. And Japan said it would seek 195,000 tonnes of US, Canadian and Australian wheat at its regular weekly tender on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Argentina said it would extend a temporary closure of its wheat export registry for 15 working days, starting December 5, as it assesses damage from mid-November frost. And Russia is expected to propose a ban on wheat exports, probably in January, when shipments for the current season exceed 12.5 million tonnes. Both moves could boost demand for US wheat.
CBoT December wheat ended up 20 cents, or 2.3 percent, at $8.75 per bushel. Most-active March wheat settled up 17-1/4 cents at $8.94, while new-crop July ended up 17-1/2 cents at $7.74-1/2 after posting a contract high at $7.76.
Commodity funds bought 4,000 contracts, traders said. CBoT corn set the higher tone, with the March contract settling up 7-3/4 cents at $4.11-1/4 per bushel. Wheat futures climbed at the Kansas City Board of Trade and the Minneapolis Grain Exchange as well. KCBT December wheat ended up 14 cents at $9.13. MGE December spring wheat closed up 18 cents at $9.78 after posting a new all-time high at $9.80.
In Paris, January milling wheat futures settled up 1.50 euros per tonne at 248.00. On a bearish note, the Australian government's ABARE raised its wheat crop estimate to 12.7 million tonnes, from 12.1 million. Also, the parched southern US Plains hard red winter wheat has a better chance of seeing rain by the weekend and early next week, a DTN Meteorlogix forecaster said. The winter wheat crop in the western belt was suffering for a lack of moisture this fall, with conditions the worse they've been since 2001.
However, the Texas crop report showed that the HRW wheat improved over the past week after scattered rains, with 14 percent of it rated good to excellent, compared with 11 percent the previous week. That was far below a year-ago rating of 42 percent good to excellent. Deliveries on the CBoT December contract totalled 878 lots, with a Bear Stearns customer taking 391 and a Fortis customer stopping 323.
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