Wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade closed higher on Monday on short-covering and concerns about US weather, but the market pared gains by the close on profit-taking and hedge-related selling, traders said. CBOT May wheat settled up 2 cents at $4.62-3/4 a bushel, after setting a two-week high at $4.68-1/2.
K.C. hard red winter wheat and MGEX spring wheat futures also closed higher, with the May contracts at both exchanges touching their highest in a month. Heavy rains are forecast this week for the Mississippi River Delta soft red winter wheat area, while dryness should build in portions of the US Plains hard red winter wheat belt, meteorologists said.
The US CFTC's weekly commitments of traders report on Friday showed non-commercials expanded their net short position in CBOT wheat to a record-large 149,226 contracts in the week to March 1, leaving the market vulnerable to short-covering. The USDA reported export inspections of US wheat in the latest week at 443,190 tonnes, above trade expectations for 300,000 to 435,000 tonnes.
Egypt will allow wheat imports with trace levels of the ergot fungus of up to 0.05 percent, the agriculture ministry said on Monday, a day after the head of its agriculture quarantine authority was changed. CBOT reported six deliveries of March K.C. hard red wheat. There were no new deliveries of CBOT soft red winter wheat or MGEX spring wheat.
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