Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures fell on Monday on generally favorable US winter wheat crop conditions and expectations of abundant global supplies, traders said. CBOT May soft red winter wheat settled down 8-1/2 cents at $4.35-3/4 per bushel after dipping to $4.35-1/4, the contract's lowest since March 12.
K.C. May hard red winter wheat ended down 8-1/4 cents at $4.11-3/4 a bushel and MGEX May spring wheat fell 14 cents at $5.09-1/4. Contract lows set across the board in K.C. wheat and in most MGEX spring wheat contracts.
Traders shrugged off strong weekly export data. The US Department of Agriculture reported export inspections of US wheat in the latest week at 811,130 tonnes, topping a range of trade expectations for 350,000 to 600,000 tonnes. Ahead of the USDA's weekly crop progress report, analysts surveyed by Reuters on average expected the government to rate 60 percent of the US winter wheat crop in good to excellent condition, unchanged from the previous week and up from 31 percent a year ago.
Analysts on average expect Statistics Canada this week to report Canadian total wheat seedings at 24.8 million acres, up slightly from the 24.7 million planted in 2018. Russian wheat export prices fell last week with prospects for the upcoming 2019 crop improving while demand weakened, analysts said.