Hard red winter wheat futures on the Kansas City Board of Trade ended sharply lower Thursday, setting back as a reversal in crude oil led commodities lower. After rallying 8 percent on Wednesday, the KCBT December wheat contract ended Thursday down 24-1/2 cents or 4 percent at $5.73-1/2 per bushel, with March down 24-1/2 cents at $5.91-1/2.
December wheat slid as low as $5.67-1/2 on the day, and March dropped as low as $5.86-1/2. A drop in crude values and a firmer dollar turned the market bearish, traders said. Weekly exports offered little direction, coming in at 496,400 tonnes (old-crop/new-crop) of wheat sold for export last week, within the range of estimates for 350,000 to 550,000 tonnes.
In a bearish note, Japan bought less wheat than planned in its tender. Also bearish, the International Grains Council (IGC) raised its 2008/09 world wheat production estimate to 683 million tonnes, up 7 million from its forecast issued last month.
Dry and warm weather favouring planting of the US HRW wheat crop in the US Plains. Weather was mostly favourable as well for wheat in Argentina and improving weather was noted in Australia.
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