Most-active March wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade rose nearly 2 percent on Tuesday to hit a one-week high on bargain buying and concerns about crop prospects in the southern US Midwest, traders said. Funds appeared to be covering short positions, traders said. The US CFTC's supplemental Commitment of Traders report showed non-commercials widened their net short position in CBOT wheat in the week to December 22 by about 17,000 contracts, to 105,706 lots, the fourth-largest net short in records dating to 2006.
Market assessing the impact of flooding in soft red winter wheat areas of the southern US Midwest, including Illinois and Missouri. K.C. hard red winter wheat and MGEX spring wheat futures also closed higher but both markets trailed the gains in CBOT wheat. Forecasts call for cold temperatures in parts of Russia next week but snow cover should protect winter wheat crops in most areas from damage, two US-based meteorological firms said. Agriculture consultancy UkrAgroConsult raised its forecast for the 2016 Ukrainian winter wheat crop to 17.8 million tonnes, from 17.5 million previously, because of a larger planting area.