Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures edged lower on Monday for a third straight session on technical selling and broad weakness in the commodity sector, traders said. CBOT March soft red winter wheat settled down 1-1/4 cents at $5.18-3/4 per bushel. K.C. March hard red winter wheat ended 2-3/4 cents lower at $5.06-3/4 a bushel and MGEX March spring wheat fell 3/4 cent to $5.74.
The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, a basket of 19 commodities, fell about 1.8 percent.
The US Department of Agriculture reported export inspections of US wheat in the latest week at 362,153 tonnes, below a range of trade expectations for 450,000 to 650,000 tonnes. CBOT wheat was underpinned by firming Russian wheat prices. Russian wheat export prices rose last week due to a stronger rouble currency and seasonally lower supply, analysts said.
After the CBOT close, Egypt's General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) set a tender on Monday to buy an unspecified amount of wheat from global suppliers for shipment from March 11-20.