CHICAGO: US wheat futures rose on Monday, supported by dry weather in key growing areas of the US Plains as well as the Black Sea region, traders said.

K.C. hard red winter wheat posted the biggest gains, with the front-month contract surging 2.9% to its highest since October 2018.

The most-active CBOT soft red winter wheat contract hit its highest since Jan. 22.

Both the benchmark CBOT December soft red winter wheat contract and K.C. December hard red winter wheat broke through the high end of their 20-day Bollinger ranges.

Export inspections of wheat totaled 643,671 tonnes in the week ended Oct. 1, up from 586,916 tonnes in the prior week, according to the US Agriculture Department. Analysts' forecasts for the weekly total had ranged from 400,000 tonnes to 650,000 tonnes.

A USDA report on Monday afternoon was expected to show that US winter wheat planting advanced 15 percentage points in the latest week to 50% complete.