Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) wheat futures rallied more than 2% on Monday on global crop concerns due to a heat wave in Europe and excessive harvest-time rains in the US wheat belt, traders said. CBOT July soft red winter wheat settled up 12 cents at $5.38 a bushel. September futures gained 11-3/4 cents to $5.42-1/2 a bushel.
K.C. July hard red winter wheat ended up 13 cents at $4.65-1/2 a bushel, and MGEX July spring wheat rose 7-1/2 cents to $5.43-1/2. Some optimism that US-China trade talks may get back on track underpinned grains markets. The countries' two leaders are due to meet this week at the G20 summit in Japan.
Wheat was also lifted by concerns about stressful heat in Europe and the Black Sea region and rains that have slowed the start of the US Plains winter wheat harvest.
Russian export prices for wheat fell last week as the number of offers rose after the start of harvesting and offset risks posed by hot weather, analysts said.
The Taiwan Flour Millers' Association purchased 83,200 tonnes of US milling wheat in an international tender. The supplement to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission's weekly commitments report showed large speculators cut their net short position in CBOT wheat by about 19,000 contracts in the week to June 18, to 24,861 lots, the smallest net short since September 2018.
For K.C. hard red winter wheat, the CFTC's supplemental report showed large speculators trimmed their net short by about 1,500 contracts, to 21,961 lots.