Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) wheat futures edged higher on Wednesday on short-covering and technical buying and on rising concerns about a weather-shortened crop in Australia, traders said. CBOT December soft red winter wheat settled up 1-1/2 cents at $5.16-3/4 per bushel. The contract held technical chart support at its 20-day moving average.

K.C. December hard red winter wheat shed 3/4 cent to settle at $4.27-3/4 a bushel, while MGEX December spring wheat declined 2-3/4 cents to close at $5.23-1/4 a bushel. Traders were squaring positions ahead of a monthly US Department of Agriculture (USDA) crop supply and demand report on Friday. The report is expected to shed light on weather-related crop woes in key export suppliers such as Australia and Argentina.

Commodity brokerage INTL FCStone said on Wednesday a poll of its clients estimated Australian wheat production during the 2019/29 season would be nearly 20% lower than official estimates. The USDA is due to release weekly export sales data early on Thursday. Analysts surveyed by Reuters expect sales last week of between 350,000 and 600,000 tonnes.