CBoT wheat futures up

Soft red winter wheat futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed higher on Friday on bullish weekly export data and a late flurry of technical buying, traders said. Benchmark September wheat settled up 6 cents at $6.10 per bushel.
The contract broke through technical resistance around $6.09 late in the session, and buy-stops lifted it to a session and weekly high of $6.13-1/4. Back months closed up 2 to 7 cents, with December up 6-1/2 at $6.22-1/2. Spot July, which is in delivery, rose 9-1/2 cents to close at $6.00-1/2 per bushel.
Commodity funds bought 1,000 contracts, traders said. Volume was on the light side, estimated by the CBoT at 40,934 wheat futures and 7,411 options. Export sales of US wheat were brisk. The USDA reported weekly export sales of US wheat at 538,400 tonnes, above trade estimates for 200,000 to 400,000 tonnes.
Included in the total was a sale of 25,000 tonnes of US hard red winter wheat to Brazil, and trade sources said the South American country may be looking for more. "The 25,000 tonnes are the tip of the iceberg," said a person in charge of wheat imports at a Brazilian mill who declined to be named.
"There should be more coming, Brazil will need more, there will have to be more brought from there because Argentina doesn't have it." Overnight business was routine, with Japan buying 100,000 tonnes of US, Canadian and Australian wheat at its weekly tender.
But traders were optimistic about US export prospects following the news on Thursday that Iraq and Egypt bought US wheat and that Syria may cancel some wheat exports. The futures market had little 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.