Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures fell on Tuesday as strong global crop prospects outweighed a cold snap in the southern US Great Plains that could trim production, traders said.
CBOT May soft red winter wheat ended down 6-1/4 cents at $5.48-3/4 per bushel.
K.C. May hard red winter wheat ended down 10-1/4 cents at $4.83-3/4 a bushel, while MGEX May spring wheat slipped 6-1/2 cents to $5.21.
Egypt, the world's largest wheat buyer, bought 120,000 tonnes of Russian wheat on Tuesday, a smaller quantity than anticipated, as the country's local buying season of the grain begins. Egypt is looking to bolster its strategic reserves amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Growers were monitoring forecasts for frosty temperatures Sunday through Tuesday in southwest Kansas and the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. Lows were forecast in the low 20s Fahrenheit (minus 4 to minus 7 degrees Celsius), potentially cold enough to damage developing wheat crops.
The US Agriculture Department on Monday said that good-to-excellent ratings for the US winter wheat crop held steady at 62%. A year ago, the crop was rated 60% good to excellent.
Private exporters reported the sale of 120,000 tonnes of hard red winter wheat to unknown destinations, the USDA said on Monday. That followed a 165,000-tonne sale to China on Friday.
Romania's surprise ban on wheat exports will cause headaches for traders seeking to meet existing contracts but is not expected to cause major disruption to international supply, grain traders said on Tuesday.
Ukrainian wheat exports from seaports rose 20% in the week of April 4-10 even as the government tries to retain as much of the grain amid the coronavirus crisis, preliminary data from the APK-Inform consultancy showed on Monday.
Dryness in Russia is raising concerns about this year's wheat harvest among Russian farmers and analysts, though the country is still expected to produce a larger crop than in 2019.
Sudan's government will purchase 200,000 tonnes of wheat in a deal with the United Nations World Food Programme, the country's finance ministry said on Monday, in a bid to bolster strategic reserves amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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