US wheat futures closed higher on Wednesday after a seesaw trade as late rallies in corn and crude oil inspired short-covering and technical buying, traders said. Wheat continues to take cues from the corn market, which hit all-time highs this week and continues to draw support from flooding in the US Midwest.
A late surge in crude oil, higher gold prices and a weaker dollar added to bullish sentiment across the commodities sector. At the Chicago Board of Trade, July soft red winter wheat settled 5-3/4 cents higher at $9.04 per bushel. Deferred months ended up 3-1/2 to 7-1/4 cents.
Funds were net buyers of 3,000 CBOT wheat contracts, traders said. Volume was moderate at an estimated 73,930 futures and 11,100 options. At the Kansas City Board of Trade, July hard red winter wheat settled 6-1/4 cents higher at $9.45-1/4 a bushel, with back months up 3 to 15 cents. KCBT volume was estimated at 18,111 contracts.
At Minneapolis Grain Exchange, July spring wheat settled 5 cents higher at $10.95 a bushel. Back months ended up 2 to 16 cents. MGE volume was estimated at 3,880 contracts. Rain stalled the Oklahoma hard red winter wheat harvest. Forecasts for widespread thunderstorms in the southern Plains this week were viewed unfavourable for maturing wheat.
Wet weather over the past several weeks has spread plant diseases in the southern US Plains hard red winter wheat belt, including head scab in Kansas and Nebraska. After the close, Egypt issued a snap tender to buy 55,000 to 60,000 tonnes of wheat for shipment July 16-31. Australia wheat farmers bet on drought-busting crop. Australian GMO wheat research seen defying drought.
Comments
Comments are closed.