Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures closed lower on Thursday on profit-taking one day after the spot May contract jumped 3% to a two-month high on speculative buying and consumer demand for flour, traders said.
CBOT May soft red winter wheat settled down 11 cents at $5.69 per bushel but stayed inside of Wednesday's trading range.
K.C. May hard red winter wheat ended down 13-3/4 cents at $4.87-1/4 a bushel and MGEX May spring wheat fell 6-1/4 cents to end at $5.31-1/4.
Futures were underpinned by strong weekly export data. The US Department of Agriculture reported export sales of US wheat in the week ended March 19 at 1,106,500 tonnes (old and new crop years combined), above a range of trade expectations for 350,000 to 950,000 tonnes.
Russia's agriculture ministry said it expected domestic grain prices to stabilize in the near future and did not foresee any drop in the country's supply of flour.
The International Grains Council (IGC) forecast record world grains production in the 2020/21 season, while warning projections were tentative until the progress and duration of the coronavirus pandemic becomes clearer.
The IGC projected 2020/21 world wheat production at 768 million tonnes, up from the prior season's 763 million.