KC hard red winter wheat futures posted the biggest gains, with the March contract rising 4 cents as export demand picked up.
Prices for Chicago Board of Trade soft red winter wheat were consolidating near its 3-1/2 year low of $5.60-1/2 a bushel. The benchmark contract traded as low as $5.60-3/4 on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Iraq's state grains buyer bought 200,000 tonnes of Australian wheat, 100,000 tonnes of Canadian wheat and 50,000 tonnes of US wheat in a tender. Prices ranged from $334.78 to $349 a tonne c&f free out.
Algeria bought about 500,000 tonnes of milling wheat in a tender.
A cold snap in the US Midwest this week poses a slight threat to about 15 percent of the soft red winter wheat crop, said Joel Widenor, a meteorologist with the Commodity Weather Group.