Soft red winter wheat futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed sharply higher on Tuesday on concerns that heavy rains in the Midwest over the weekend harmed the US soft red winter wheat crop, traders said.
CBOT wheat closed 12-1/2 to 27 cents per bushel higher, with July up 26-1/4 at $3.88-1/4.
Wheat traders also took direction from the limit-up moves in corn and soybeans. Wet weather delayed seedings and may have hurt some of those crops.
"With corn and beans so strong wheat was sort of following, but there was some independent strength for wheat that came from the weekend rains that led to some concern about lodging and diseases," said Shawn McCambridge, analyst for Prudential Securities.
Technical support in the July contract was at $3.56-3/4 per bushel, and resistance at $3.82-3/4 was broken, driving the contract to a session high of $3.91.
The nine-day relative strength index for July stood at 30 prior to the open on Tuesday. Chartists view an RSI of 30 or less as an oversold market and 70 or more as an overbought market.