Wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade fell Friday on technical selling and seasonal pressure from the expanding winter wheat harvest in the Northern Hemisphere, traders said. Technical selling accelerated in CBOT July wheat as the contract dropped below $5.87-1/4. Quality concerns about the US soft and hard red winter wheat crops persist following recent bouts of wet weather. Head scab has emerged in SRW wheat in parts of southern Illinois and Indiana, agronomists said.
Rains this week slowed the harvest of HRW wheat in the southern US Plains, muddying fields and causing lower test weights in the grain, a weekly harvest report said. CBOT wheat storage rates are poised to rise under the CME Group's "variable storage rates" plan. Friday was the final day of the July/September spread observation period, which determines whether storage rates change.
Friday was also the last trading day for CBOT July options. July wheat settled at $5.85-1/4 a bushel, avoiding sizeable open interest at the $5.90 and $6.00 strikes. EU grain lobby Coceral raised its forecast of soft wheat production in the European Union to 141.9 million tonnes, up 6 million tonnes from its March estimate.
Comments
Comments are closed.