Wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade closed higher on Tuesday after trading both sides, buoyed by a late surge in CBOT soyabeans and broad-based fund buying in commodities, traders said.
"The funds were big buyers today across the floor," Fimat Futures analyst Dan Cekander said.
Reflecting wider strength in commodities, the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodity futures climbed to 335.62, up 0.6 percent.
CBOT December wheat closed up 4-1/2 cents at $3.04 per bushel. March
Funds bought some 4,000 wheat contracts on the day, traders said.
The December contract expires on Wednesday. Open interest was down to 479 lots ahead of Tuesday's session.
Wheat drew some support from forecasts for more cold weather next week in the US Plains hard red winter wheat belt. A cold snap last week took a toll on fields in drought-stricken areas of Texas and Oklahoma, where a lack of adequate soil moisture and poor plant health made the crop particularly vulnerable.
The market had background pressure from a NAFTA ruling on Monday that rejected a US wheat tariff on Canadian spring wheat exported to the United States. The Canadian Wheat Board said it expected the spring wheat tariff would be dropped within the next few weeks as the ruling is finalised.
However, US traders said tight supplies of Canadian milling-quality wheat should limit an influx of Canadian grain.
Separately, a Canadian Wheat Board official said sales of Canadian milling wheat to China will likely slump in this marketing year because Canada cannot meet China's quality requirements.
In other world wheat news, Egypt, one of the world's biggest wheat importers, is aiming to grow 8 million tonnes of wheat this season, Agriculture Minister Ahmed el-Laithi was quoted as saying.
Deliveries on the CBOT December wheat contract totalled 188 contracts, with a customer of the Lion Division of ABN Amro issuing 112. There were scattered stoppers. Registrations with the CBOT were unchanged at 1,632 lots.