Soft red winter wheat futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were mixed at midday on Friday, with light profit-taking offsetting support from bullish weekly export data, traders said. The market was consolidating after recent volatility, including a sharply higher close on Thursday that traders attributed to news of fresh export demand for US wheat.
As of 12:20 pm CDT (1720 GMT), benchmark September wheat was up 1 cent at $6.05 per bushel, with deferred months down 1/4 to 3/4 cent. Spot July, which is in delivery, was up 2 cents at $5.93 per bushel. Penson GHCO sold 200 September contracts, traders said. The USDA reported weekly export sales of US wheat at 538,400 tonnes, above trade estimates for 200,000 to 400,000 tonnes.
Overnight business was routine, with Japan buying 100,000 tonnes of US, Canadian and Australian wheat at its weekly tender. The futures market had little immediate reaction to crop estimates issued by analytical firm Informa Economics. Trade sources said the firm estimated 2007 US all-winter wheat production at 1.583 billion bushels, below USDA's current estimate of 1.610 billion.
Informa put US soft red winter wheat production at 359 million bushels, above USDA's estimate of 341 million. Informa also estimated 2007 US "other spring" wheat production at 520 million bushels. The USDA will release its next supply/demand report, including projections for US wheat production by class, on July 12.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.