Spring wheat futures on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange closed mostly lower on Wednesday on long liquidation and spreading, traders said. "All day long we continued to see people come in just to sell the July outright or sell the (July/September) spread, and that dragged everything else with it," a Minneapolis trader said.
MGE July wheat closed down 4-1/4 cents at $3.45 per bushel, with deferred months down 1-1/2 to up 1-1/2 cents.
Volume was estimated by the exchange at 5,737 contracts, traders said.
Pressure from the ongoing winter wheat harvest remained as a bearish background factor.
The MGE July/September spread traded out to an 8-1/2-cent carry, weighing on overall market sentiment.
Thursday is first notice day for deliveries against the July contract, and MGE traders said they were expecting 200 to 300 deliveries. Traders noted that spring wheat stocks at the Duluth/Superior terminal have been holding at around 13 million bushels for the past few weeks.
"If we had been at 7 or 9 million bushes, you would see no deliveries. But there's 13 million bushels up there - that's where it has been for the last three weeks," the trader said.
Brokers were also squaring positions ahead of the US Department of Agriculture's quarterly grain stocks report on Thursday. The average US wheat stocks estimate from analysts surveyed by Reuters was 532 million bushels, down from USDA's year-ago figure of 546 million.
USDA will issue estimates for spring, durum and all-wheat acreage as well. The average analyst estimate for spring wheat seedings was 14.175 million acres, down from USDA's March 31 figure of 14.371 million.
The average analyst estimate for US all-wheat seedings was 58.392 million acres, down from USDA's March 31 estimate of 58.592 million.
In overnight export news, Pakistan said it may have to import 500,000 to 700,000 tonnes of wheat because bad weather has damaged its domestic crop.
Syria rejected all offers and made no sale in a tender to sell and export a total 100,000 tonnes of hard and soft wheat.