Hard red winter wheat futures on the Kansas City Board of Trade ended higher on Thursday, supported by outside markets and continued delays in spring wheat seedings. The KCBT May ended up 4 cents at $5.76-1/4, and the July closed up 3-3/4 cents at $5.84-3/4. May wheat rose to $5.90 and July posted a session high of $5.92-1/2. Wheat took spillover strength from strong gains in soybean futures.
As well, tight stocks of spring wheat and seeding delays due to wet field conditions in the northern US Plains remained supportive for prices. But large deliveries in Chicago against expiring nearby wheat contracts pressured the market. Kansas City deliveries posted Thursday against the expiring May contract totalled only 306 lots.
Also, wheat exports were disappointing. USDA said Thursday that weekly export sales of US wheat totalled 142,400 tonnes, plus 108,800 tonnes for 2009/10, but trade estimates were for 350,000 to 450,000 tonnes. Egypt bought 60,000 tonnes of Canadian wheat and Iraq bought at least 100,000 tonnes of Australian wheat and was close to buying another 150,000 tonnes of Canadian and German hard wheat.
The market remained somewhat skittish over concerns about spreading H1N1 flu. But wheat traders largely shrugged off significant market implications at this point and were watching crop conditions for the new HRW wheat crop as well as the spring wheat seeding situation. The Wheat Quality Council will launch its annual wheat tour of Kansas, the top US wheat-growing state, next week to gauge production potential for the new HRW wheat crop. Cool and wet weather has benefited the new HRW wheat crop.