June 29, 2006

 

US Wheat Outlook on Thursday: Up 1/2 cent - 1 cent on spring wheat crop concerns

 

 

U.S. wheat futures were called to open up 1/2 cent to 1 cent Thursday on concerns of a deterioration in the U.S. spring wheat crop and ahead of Friday's U.S. Department of Agriculture quarterly wheat stocks and U.S. 2006 wheat acreage data, brokers said.

 

Supportive weekly net U.S. wheat export sales of 542,200 metric tonnes may also underpin U.S. wheat futures, they added. The net sales were 72% above the previous week's tally.

 

Friday is also first notice day for deliveries against the three U.S. July wheat futures contracts.

 

"However, any delivery news is going to be overshadowed by the USDA's data," said Vic Lespinasse, a grain analyst at AG Edwards & Sons.

 

In the overnight e-CBOT session, most-active September wheat closed up 1 cent at US$3.89 per bushel.

 

Technical support was seen at the 10-day moving average of US$3.76 per bushel. Resistance was seen at the 100-day moving average of US$3.90 3/4 per bushel.

 

Kansas City Board of Trade September wheat ended overnight down 4 1/4 cents at US$4.95 1/2 per bushel.

 

Technical support was seen at Tuesday's low of US$4.95 per bushel while resistance was seen at Tuesday's high of US$5.05 per bushel.

 

Cash U.S. hard red winter wheat basis bids were mixed, with a 5-cent loss in Kansas City and a 9-cent gain in Port of Catoosa, Okla.; soft red winter wheat basis bids were mixed, with a 1-cent loss in the Cincinnati bid and a 3-cent gain in Kansas City soft red winter wheat truck bid; and spring wheat basis bids were mixed, with a 17 1/2-cent loss in the Aberdeen bid and a 7-1/2 cent gain in Billings, Mont., grain merchandisers said.

 

In overnight U.S. wheat export news, Japan bought 60,000 tonnes of U.S. wheat in its overall tender of 80,000 tonnes. Japan bought 16,000 tonnes of hard red winter wheat, 20,000 tonnes of western white and 24,000 tonnes of dark northern spring wheat.

 

In other global wheat news, the International Grains Council said it had raised its forecast for 2006-07 world wheat production by 4.1 million metric tonnes to 604.6 million metric tonnes.