Spring wheat futures at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange settled mixed on Wednesday with nearby months hit by technical selling late in the session, traders said.
Prices opened higher, following as Kansas City Board of Trade wheat rebounded from oversold conditions, but values turned mixed as follow-through buying failed to emerge.
MGE September spring wheat settled down 2-1/2 cents at $4.50-3/4 per bushel, with December down 1 at $4.61 and deferreds up 2 cents to down 3-3/4. The September/December spread traded at a carry of 9-3/4 cents, with Man Financial noted selling September against December.
Volume was estimated by the exchange at 6,361 contracts, down from 6,998 on Tuesday. There was little fundamental news to steer futures.
Ideas that declines in US wheat futures over the past week might spark fresh export demand were supportive, and traders were looking ahead to the USA's weekly export sales report on Thursday. Analysts estimated US wheat sales for the week at 300,000 to 500,000 tonnes.
"We will be watching the export number a little more carefully to see if there has been any pickup in demand," a Minneapolis trader said. After the markets closed, Egypt said it was seeking 55,000 to 60,000 tonnes of US, French, Canadian, Australian and/or German wheat for September shipment. Concerns about dwindling global stocks of wheat provided background support. The US Department of Agriculture last week projected 2006/07 world-ending stocks of wheat at 128.4 million tonnes, which would be the lowest level in 25 years.
Argentina's Agriculture Secretariat on Wednesday lowered the forecast for Argentina's 2006/07-wheat area to 5.4 million hectares, from 5.5 million hectares a month ago. On the export front, Morocco awarded licenses to import of 20,000 tonnes of United States soft wheat, European traders said. United States traders said Cargill Inc sold Morocco the wheat for shipment from the port of Albany. Overnight, South Korea passed on a tender for feed wheat, while Syria sold 35,000 tonnes of durum.
Showers were forecast in the northern United States Plains on Wednesday and Thursday, potentially causing minor slowdowns in the spring wheat harvest, Meteorlogix weather said. However, the harvest was progressing well ahead of normal, with 69 percent complete as of Sunday.