Chicago Board of Trade soft red winter wheat futures rose Thursday, following as K.C. hard red winter (HRW) wheat futures climbed on bargain buying after a selloff this week tied to rains in the US Plains crop belt, traders said. CBOT May wheat settled up 2-1/4 cents at $4.55-3/4 per bushel.
K.C. May HRW wheat ended up 5-1/2 cents at $4.71 a bushel and MGEX May spring wheat rose 3-3/4 cents at $5.93. Rally capped by forecasts for more moisture next week in the drought-hit southern US Plains winter wheat belt. The International Grains Council said global wheat production was forecast to fall by 17 million tonnes in 2018-19 to 741 million tonnes, with the largest decline seen in Russia.
Russia's winter grain sowings have passed the winter well, with only 3 percent to 5 percent in poor condition, the head of weather forecaster Hydrometcentre said, indicating the country is on track for large crop in 2018. Private analytics firm Informa Economics projected US all-wheat plantings for harvest in 2018 at 46.1 million acres, up 30,000 acres from its previous forecast in January, trade sources said. The US Department of Agriculture delayed its weekly export sales report until Friday.