US wheat futures ended higher on Wednesday in a short-covering recovery following several days of contract lows in both spring and winter wheat futures. Commodity funds hold a massive net short position in wheat futures markets, leaving them susceptible to bouts of short-covering. CBOT July soft red winter (SRW) wheat settled down 7-1/4 cents at $4.36 per bushel.
K.C. July hard red winter (HRW) wheat ended up 6 cents at $4.00 a bushel. MGEX July spring wheat rose 5 cents to $5.12. Concerns about planting delays due to rain and chilly temperatures propped up spring wheat futures. The United States may push for a quick trade deal with Japan, a top US wheat importer, to gain the same access to agricultural markets as some other Japanese trade partners, US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said on Tuesday.
Traders are monitoring observations from an annual wheat crop tour surveying fields in Kansas this week. Western Kansas HRW wheat fields were in good shape and showed better yield potential than a year ago, but the crop is less mature than normal for this time of year, scouts said on Wednesday. Good weather in key global wheat production areas, including parts of Russia and the European Union, has also weighed on wheat prices.
The US Department of Agriculture is due to release weekly export sales data early on Thursday. Analysts are expecting 200,000 to 500,000 tonnes of old-crop wheat sales and 50,000 to 350,000 tonnes in new-crop sales.