Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures rose on Tuesday as a decline in US crop ratings and news of radioactive pollution in the Ural Mountains triggered a round of short-covering and concern about wheat exports from Russia, the world's top supplier. CBOT December soft red winter wheat settled up 2-3/4 cents at $4.24-3/4 per bushel. K.C. December hard red winter wheat ended up 4-1/4 cents at $4.20-1/4 a bushel and MGEX December spring wheat rose 3/4 cent to $6.27.
Wheat firmed after Russia's meteorological service said it had measured pollution of a radioactive isotope at nearly 1,000 times normal levels in the Ural Mountains. That marked the first official Russian data supporting reports that a nuclear incident had taken place in Russia or Kazakhstan in the last week of September.
The Russian news reminded some traders of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986, which sparked a rally in CBOT grain futures. But others were skeptical about the market impact of the contamination, and attributed Tuesday's strength in wheat to technical buying and short-covering. Funds hold a sizable net short position in CBOT wheat futures, leaving the market vulnerable to bouts of short-covering.
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