Soft red winter wheat futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were higher at midsession on Wednesday, rebounding from Tuesday's weak close on tight global wheat supplies and optimism about US export demand, traders said. Syria cancelled nearly 400,000 tonnes of wheat export contracts due to a poor harvest this year, a senior grains official said.
Also, Morocco, Jordan and Iraq are expected to buy wheat in the next few days. Because of tight supplies in Europe and the Black Sea region, traders were optimistic that the United States will get some of the business. In a positive sign, Egypt this week bought 300,000 tonnes of US soft red wheat amid a scarcity of offers.
"It's nice to be needed," Linn Group analyst Roy Huckabay said. As of 11:05 am CDT (1605 GMT), CBOT September wheat was up 9-3/4 cents at $6.11 per bushel, breaking through resistance at its 20-day moving average of $6.08. Back months were up 1 to 9-3/4 cents. Traders attributed the early buying to locals and screen-based trade.