Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures fell on Monday in profit-taking after a nearly 30-cent surge on Friday to near 12-month highs, traders said.
CBOT wheat closed 2 to 7-1/4 cents per bushel lower, with March down 7-1/4 at $3.98-1/2.
Pressure also stemmed from the export picture as USDA early on Monday said 14.774 million bushels of US wheat were inspected for export last week, below trade estimates for 22.0 million to 27.0 million and below the previous week's inspections of 23.793 million bushels.
But pit sources said the main reason wheat fell on Monday was because it had become technically overbought after the surge last week on news China will send a wheat-buying team to the United States.
The nine-day relative strength index for March stood at 75 prior to the open on Monday. Technical traders view an RSI of 70 or more as an overbought market and 30 or less as an oversold market.
USDA on Friday also reported a switch of 105,000 tonnes of spring wheat to China from unknown destinations.
There also was talk some buying on Friday may have stemmed from pricing by the Australian Wheat Board through US firms. Nearby CBOT wheat contracts touched the 30-cent-per-bushel trading limit late Friday.
Traders continued to keep an eye on shifting weather in the US Great Plains hard red winter wheat growing region. A cold snap early this week might harm some of the US Great Plains hard red winter wheat crop, a private forecaster said.
"There might be a little problem in the south where there is no snow cover, but there's probably nothing major," Meteorlogix forecaster Joel Burgio said.
Burgio said temperature readings fell to zero degrees (Fahrenheit) to 10 below zero F early Monday in southern Nebraska and northern Kansas.
The bitter cold weather is expected to extend to southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma early Tuesday, Burgio said.Technical support in the March contract at $4.00 per bushel was broken, driving the contract to a session low of $3.97. Resistance was at $4.11.
Estimated CBOT wheat volume on Monday was 25,777 lots, compared with Friday's trade of 39,861 lots. Options trade was seen at 5,082 lots.