CBOT wheat rises on technical buying, corn rally

CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) wheat futures rose on Monday on technical buying and short covering, following a rally in corn, traders said.

* CBOT September soft red winter wheat ended up 3-3/4 cents at $4.94-1/2 per bushel.

* K.C. September hard red winter wheat rose 5 cents to $4.26-3/4 a bushel, and MGEX September spring wheat gained 2-1/4 cents to $5.24-1/2.

* There was little fresh fundamental news to support the rise in prices, but futures markets were due for a bounce and were lifted by technical buying, traders said.

* After the market closed, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) rated 73% of the US spring wheat crop in good to excellent condition in its weekly crop progress report, unchanged from a week ago.

* The agency also reported the US winter wheat harvest to be 82% complete.

* Analysts on average forecast the USDA would rate 72% of the US spring wheat crop as good to excellent as of Aug. 4, according to an average of estimates by 12 analysts surveyed by Reuters on Monday.

* Analysts expected the USDA to show the US winter wheat harvest to have advanced 9 percentage points to 84% complete.