Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures were mostly higher on Friday on optimism for improving demand for US exports and as the government estimated US winter wheat plantings at a 110-year low, traders said. CBOT March soft red winter wheat rose 4 cents to $5.17-1/4 a bushel. But the contract ended the week down 1.3 percent after a steep drop on Thursday. It was the first weekly decline in three weeks.
K.C. March hard red winter wheat ended down 2 cents at $4.94-1/4 a bushel and MGEX March spring wheat rose 4 cents to $5.68-1/2 a bushel. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a flood of crop data on Friday, including some delayed by the recent partial government shutdown. Most of the forecasts and estimates were in line with trade expectations.
The USDA said farmers seeded the smallest winter wheat area - 31.290 million acres - since 1909. The USDA said Dec. 1 wheat stocks were 1.999 billion bushels, up from the year-earlier figure of 1.873 billion bushels. Analysts had expected wheat stocks of 1.957 billion bushels. Wheat prices were supported by improving US export prospects as supplies in top wheat exporter Russia have thinned.
Egypt's state grains buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities, bought 300,000 tonnes of wheat in a snap tender on Friday, including 120,000 tonnes of US soft red wheat. Traders are monitoring trade negotiations between the United States and China. A new round of talks begins in Beijing on Monday.
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