Hard red winter wheat futures on the Kansas City Board of Trade declined Monday on technical weakness and spillover pressure from a limit drop in the Minneapolis spring wheat market, traders said. Minneapolis Grain Exchange futures tumbled on a softening cash market for hard red spring wheat and weakness in the MGE May/July spread.
KCBT May wheat fell 3 cents to close at $9.50-3/4 per bushel, with July down 10 cents at $9.57. KCBT May fell below support at $9.50 and dipped to a session low of $9.34 overnight, its lowest since January 11. KCBT volume was on the light side at an estimated 10,983 contracts. The southern US Plains hard red winter wheat belt was mostly dry over the weekend but rain was expected on Thursday, which should help the developing crop.
Frost and freeze warnings were posted early Monday in parts of the southern US Plains HRW belt, but the wheat was not thought to be vulnerable to much damage because its development is a few weeks behind normal. USDA said 13.786 million bushels of US wheat were inspected for export last week, below estimates for 16 million to 22 million.
After the close, USDA said 47 percent of the US winter wheat crop was rated in good to excellent condition, up from 45 percent a week earlier. The crop was 4 percent headed, compared with the five-year average of 6 percent. Argentina delayed the reopening of its wheat export registry until May 5, the Agriculture Secretariat said.
China's 2008 wheat harvest was seen as ample at 107.6 million tonnes, with higher yields and acreage offsetting the impact of severe drought. The supplement to Friday's CFTC reports showed large speculators (excluding index funds) cut their net long position in KCBT wheat to 16,149 contracts in the week ended April 8, down 1,200 lots.
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