US wheat futures rose on Friday on a round of short-covering ahead of the weekend, traders said. Investment funds were unwinding the massive bearish bet they had placed on wheat as the US crop emerges from dormancy, which leaves it vulnerable to damage. CBOT May soft red winter wheat rallied to its session high ahead of the close before hitting resistance at its 20-day moving average. For the week, the most-active CBOT soft red winter wheat contract rose 4.7 percent. K.C. hard red winter wheat rose 2.6 percent and MGEX May spring wheat rose 1.1 percent.
CBOT wheat had posted weekly losses for five weeks in a row. This week's gain was its biggest in percentage terms in eight months.