Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures turned mixed on Tuesday in volatile trading with the market rattled by USDA's announcement that China booked 175,000 tonnes of US wheat, traders said.
USDA on Tuesday morning said China switched commitments from unknown to US destinations for 105,000 tonnes of spring wheat and 70,000 tonnes of white wheat.
The news came amid hopes for strong sales of US wheat to China, which will soon send a wheat buying delegation to the United States.
Wheat rallied in early trading but quickly sagged on profit-taking in volatile dealings.
At 10:34 am CST (1634 GMT), CBOT wheat was down 2 cents to up 2 cents per bushel, with March down 1 at $3.97-1/2 per bushel.
Traders said the wheat market backed down from its early gains because it is nearly overbought in technical terms.
The CBOT March nine-day relative strength index was at 67, near the benchmark 70 level that chartists view as overbought.
Support in the new-crop July contract stemmed from a turn to bitter cold weather on Tuesday in the US winter wheat regions which fed some fears of winterkill.
The CBOT July contract was up 2 cents at $3.85-1/2 per bushel. KCBT July wheat also was holding firm.
Monday's CFTC commitments of traders data showed that funds were long 34,031 futures as of last Tuesday, down 11,754, and short 17,282, up 777 from the prior week.
For futures and options combined large speculators were net long at a more than 2-to-1 ratio. Funds were long 33,558 contracts, down 12,611, and short 15,077, up 1,309.
Technical support in the March contract at $3.96 per bushel was broken, driving the contract to a session low of $3.95. Resistance was at $4.00-1/4.