Front-month wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade neared a six-month high on Friday and the benchmark March contract also hit a multimonth high on chart-based buying and renewed fears that Russia might curb wheat exports, traders said. CBOT March wheat rose and settled above psychological support at the $6-a-bushel mark. K.C. hard red winter wheat and MGEX spring wheat also closed higher.
Spot December contracts at all three exchanges expired, with MGEX December spring wheat surging 50 cents at $6.70 a bushel with open interest down to a single contract. Exporters of Russian wheat have cut prices to try to speed up sales abroad before the government possibly introduces curbs to replenish its own stocks and prevent the cost of bread from rising, traders and analysts said. On Thursday, Russian Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov said his ministry would consider all options to restrain exports "except an embargo," and cover domestic demand. Market shrugged off pressure from news that Argentina approved an additional 1 million tonnes of 2014-15 wheat for export, following a 1.5 million tonne quota announced in November. CBOT reported one delivery of Chicago December wheat and 36 lots of K.C. wheat, with the ADM house account taking all. MGEX reported no spring wheat deliveries.
Comments
Comments are closed.