Wheat futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were higher early on Tuesday, supported by a reduction in USDA's forecasts for US and global ending stocks for 2003/04, traders said.
At 10:24 am CST (1624 GMT), CBOT wheat was up 2 to 4-1/4 cents per bushel, with March up 3-1/4 at $3.85-1/2.
Cargill Investor Services bought 900 March, and FIMAT Futures was also a buyer of March, pit sources said.
USDA early Tuesday in its February supply/demand reports pegged 2003/04 world wheat ending stocks at 125.95 million tonnes, below the January forecast of 127.26 million.
And USDA pegged US wheat ending stocks at 534 million bushels, below an average of analysts' estimates for 559 million but unchanged from the January outlook.
The decline in global ending wheat stocks reflected smaller crop estimates for China and the European Union along with the drop in US 2003/04 end stocks.