Hard red winter wheat futures on the Kansas City Board of Trade settled lower on Tuesday, giving up early gains amid a round of profit-taking. Minneapolis wheat prices led wheat markets lower late on outlooks for improved spring wheat seeding weather in the US Northern Plains. The KCBT May rose to $5.76 before reversing to end down 5-1/2 cents a bushel at $5.64-1/2.
Chicago Board of Trade soyabean futures led wheat higher early, with beans hitting a three-month top. Limited support also stemmed from fresh US winter wheat crop ratings after the USDA said 42 percent of the winter wheat crop was rated good to excellent, down from 43 percent a week earlier and down from 47 percent a year earlier. In Kansas, the top US wheat-producing state, the new-crop was rated 37 percent good to excellent and 19 percent poor to very poor, with 44 percent rated fair.
In world wheat news, the French farm ministry trimmed its estimate for the countrys area sown with soft wheat ahead of the 2009 harvest to 4.93 million hectares, versus 4.96 million estimated in February. Japan was seeking to buy 61,300 tonnes of food wheat, and some major buyers of Russian wheat including Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey, may cut purchases in the coming 2009/10 crop year as they expect to reap big harvests themselves, according to SovEcon Ltd. Shipments of Black Sea wheat under a recently awarded European Union quota were not expected in import-needy Spains leading grain port until mid-May.