Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures ended on a down note on Friday, as traders scrambled for profits after a week where trade-war fears and forecasts of a reduced harvest in Russia roiled the grain markets. Wheat closed lower with the front-month July losing ground to back months, in largely technical moves, traders said.
CBOT's July soft red winter wheat settled down 4 cents at $4.91-1/4 per bushel. The contract saw chart resistance at its 100 day moving average. K.C. July hard red winter wheat ended down 4-1/2 cents at $4.88-3/4 a bushel. The Kansas City hard red winter wheat July futures contract saw chart resistance at its 200 day moving average. Both markets were setting back after two days of strong gains that took prices up more than two percent.
MGEX July spring wheat closed the day down 3-3/4 cents to $5.49 a bushel. Heavy rains halted the harvest of US hard red winter (HRW) wheat this week as progress in top producer Kansas reached the halfway mark, wheat industry group Plains Grains Inc said in a weekly harvest report dated Friday. Trade jitters have rattled agricultural markets over the past two weeks amid worries that China, which is also the largest importer of US pork and cotton, would slow or halt purchases of those and other US farm goods.
Next week, traders say they are planning to closely watch the acreage numbers in the anticipated US acreage and stocks estimates from the US Department of Agriculture, set to be released on June 29. The market's focus will be on whether USDA will report a bump up in soybean acres - as well as whether the winter wheat acres will remain as high as the agency has suggested in the past.
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