Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures reached their highest price in two weeks on Friday on a smaller forecast for France's harvest and technical buying, traders said. CBOT September soft red winter wheat settled up 17-3/4 cents at $5.01-1/4 per bushel. That was still down 0.6 percent on the week.
Strategie Grains slashed its forecast for this year's French wheat harvest by more than 4 million tonnes to 33.2 million tonnes, according to traders. That was well below other market estimates and last year's harvest of 36.6 million tonnes. The reduced estimate reminded traders about tightening global grain supplies, a market analyst said.
The US Department of Agriculture, in a quarterly stocks report, said domestic wheat inventories as of June 1 were 1.1 billion bushels, down from 1.181 billion a year earlier. The USDA separately estimated US all-wheat plantings at 47.821 million acres, up from 47.339 million acres in March. Analysts were expecting 47.102 million acres.