Wheat futures at the Chicago Board of Trade settled mostly higher on Thursday as a surge in corn prices helped the market overcome poor exports and bearish reports from a Kansas wheat tour, traders said. However, both wheat and corn futures came off the day's highs by the close.
CBOT May wheat closed up 1-1/2 cents at $4.81 per bushel, with bellwether July up 1 at $4.94-1/2, above its 20-day moving average. December ended up 1-1/4 cents at $5.15. Volume was estimated by the CBOT at 61,976 wheat futures and 8,450 options.
Commodity funds bought 1,000 wheat contracts and 10,000 to 14,000 corn contracts, traders said. New-crop December corn ended up 7 cents at $3.87-1/4 per bushel as concerns about US planting weather sparked aggressive speculative buying.
Advances in the wheat market were limited by better-than-expected results on the first two days of an annual Kansas crop tour, which eased production worries following a widespread freeze last month.
After the close, the Wheat Quality Council tour issued its final results, projecting the state's 2007 wheat production at 392.7 million bushels, up from the tour's 2006 estimate of 319.2 million.
Scouts toured 447 fields on the three-day tour. They found some severe crop damage from the Easter weekend freeze in central Kansas, but strong crop prospects in western areas were expected to compensate. The tour pegged the average Kansas wheat yield at 41 bushels per acre, up from the tour's 2006 estimate of 37.3.
Weekly export data was disappointing for wheat. The US Department of Agriculture early on Thursday reported export sales of US wheat at 215,100 tonnes (old and new crop), below estimates for 250,000 to 450,000 tonnes.
Export business was quiet overnight, another bearish factor. The European Union said there were no bids to export free-market wheat at its weekly tender.
Continued heavy deliveries weighed on front-month CBOT May wheat, with 1,553 lots announced Thursday amid scattered stopping. The Term Commodities house account took 333 lots.