CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures closed higher on Tuesday, with the benchmark December contract hitting its highest in more than a week on short-covering and worries about declining US crop condition ratings, traders said.
* CBOT December soft red winter wheat settled up 4-3/4 cents at $5.12 per bushel after reaching $5.14, its highest since Oct. 29.
* K.C. December hard red winter wheat ended up 3-1/4 cents at $5.08 a bushel and MGEX December spring wheat rose 7 cents at $5.88-1/2.
* The US Department of Agriculture late Monday rated 51 percent of the US winter wheat crop as good to excellent, down from 53 percent the previous week. Analysts on average had expected a slight improvement.
* The USDA also said the winter wheat crop was 84 percent seeded, lagging the five-year average of 90 percent, with cold temperatures in the Plains and Midwest forecast for next week.
* "We are running out of time on planting winter wheat, so we may be losing acres," said Terry Reilly, senior analyst with Futures International in Chicago.
* Also, commodity funds hold a net short position in CBOT wheat, leaving the market vulnerable to bouts of short-covering.
* Russian wheat export prices fell last week as supply grew in the domestic market and as a regulator's efforts to enforce quality standards by seeking to suspend some grain-loading operations had limited impact.
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