Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures tumbled on Tuesday, with the March contract hitting its lowest since December on signs of adequate global supplies and what appeared to be fund-driven long liquidation, traders said.

CBOT March soft red winter wheat settled down 10 cents at $5.42 per bushel after touching $5.39, the contracts lowest since December 24.

K.C. March hard red winter wheat ended down 4-1/4 cents at $4.68-1/4 a bushel and MGEX March spring wheat ended down 2-1/2 cents at $5.31-1/4.

Futures fell to session lows after the US Department of Agriculture in a monthly supply-demand report trimmed its forecast of world wheat stocks at the end of the 2019-20 marketing year to 288.03 million tonnes, nearly unchanged from 288.08 million previously.

However, analysts surveyed by Reuters on average had expected the government to cut its ending stocks forecast to 287.44 million tonnes.

CBOT wheat was seen as vulnerable to long liquidation after the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission's weekly supplemental commitments report showed large speculators widened their net long position in CBOT wheat in the week to Feb. 4, to 21,650 lots, their biggest net long since 2007.

Egypt's main state wheat buyer, GASC, purchased 360,000 tonnes of Russian and Romanian wheat in an international tender. Prices, including cost and freight, ranged from $239.35 to $239.55 per tonne, down about $6 a tonne from what GASC paid at its last wheat purchase tender on January 30.

Copyright Reuters, 2020

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