CBOT wheat ends firm on short-covering, technical buying

• CBOT December soft red winter wheat settled 2-3/4 cents higher at $5.20-3/4 per bushel.
• A flurry of large wheat tenders in recent weeks supported futures despite minimal purchases of US grain.

CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures firmed on Wednesday for the first time in three sessions, supported by short-covering and technical buying after prices slipped to one-week lows, traders said.

Strong global demand for wheat was also supportive, although US wheat is still facing headwinds on international markets with ample supplies of cheaper grain available from rival exporters.

CBOT December soft red winter wheat settled 2-3/4 cents higher at $5.20-3/4 per bushel.

K.C. December hard red winter wheat closed up 2 cents at $4.23-1/4 a bushel while MGEX December spring wheat was up 3-1/4 cents at $5.42-1/4 a bushel.

A flurry of large wheat tenders in recent weeks supported futures despite minimal purchases of US grain. Algeria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are among recent large buyers.

Drought across most Ukrainian regions is likely to reduce the area sown in the 2020, winter grain harvest, the head of Ukraine's state weather forecasting center said.