CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade soft red winter wheat futures rose on Monday on a short-covering bounce as investors evened up positions ahead of a US Agriculture Department report, traders said.

* Hard red winter wheat futures at the Kansas City Board of Trade fell due to near-ideal growing conditions for the crop in the US Plains.

* Despite the gains in CBOT wheat, the benchmark May contract closed below all key technical moving averages. Prices had rallied above the 100-day moving average during the session but failed to hold support above that level.

* Analysts expecting USDA Department report on Tuesday morning to show 2011/12 domestic wheat ending stocks at 792 million bushels, down from the government's March forecast of 825 million.

* USDA reported weekly what export inspections of 17.605 million bushels, in line with analysts' estimates for 15 million to 19 million.

* Crop-boosting rainfall forecast for US Plains late this week. Western stretches of key hard red winter wheat-growing areas expected to get as much as 1 to 2 inches of rain, said John Dee, meteorologist for Global Weather Monitoring.

* The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on Friday afternoon that large speculators raised their net short stake in CBOT wheat by 3,383 contracts to 79,986 as of April 3.