US Wheat Review on Monday: Falls on spillover pressure from other markets

 

 

U.S. wheat futures drifted lower Monday on pressure from other markets and a lack of supportive news, traders said.

 

Chicago Board of Trade September wheat closed down 9 3/4 cents at US$5.19 1/4 a bushel. Kansas City Board of Trade September wheat lost 13 1/4 cents to US$5.51, and Minneapolis Grain Exchange September wheat lost 10 cents to US$6.12 1/2.

 

Wheat fell along with soys, corn and crude oil as commodities showed weakness in general, a CBOT floor trader said. Commodity funds sold an estimated 3,000 wheat contracts at the CBOT.

 

The firm dollar was a bearish influence on the grains, a CBOT floor trader said. The markets have shown recently that they can trade independently of the dollar, but a stronger greenback "doesn't help" wheat to rise, he said.

 

There was a lack of bullish fundamental news for the markets, an analyst said. U.S. winter wheat harvest is underway and expected to progress this week.

 

Export demand remains lackluster, although there are some expectations for a pickup in demand, analysts said. Weekly U.S. wheat export inspections of 12.128 million bushels were toward the low end of trade expectations of 11 million to 17 million.

 

CBOT September wheat in open outcry trading hit a fresh contract low of US$5.17 1/2 on a daily chart, taking out its previous low of US$5.24 1/4.

 

Nearby CBOT July wheat closed down 9 3/4 cents at US$4.90 1/2. That was the lowest price for a spot-month contract on a monthly nearby continuation chart since March.

 

 

Kansas City Board of Trade

 

KCBT wheat closed lower on harvest pressure and spillover selling from other markets, traders said. Weather is expected to be favorable for U.S. hard red winter wheat cutting this week after wetness during the weekend.

 

A "long line of thunderstorms spread across northern Kansas, temporarily stopping the fledgling wheat harvest in the northwest area of the state," during the Independence Day weekend. according to a report from growers' group Kansas Wheat. Harvest "is drawing to a close elsewhere in Kansas," the country's top HRW wheat-growing state.

 

 

Minneapolis Grain Exchange

 

MGE wheat slumped with the other markets. There wasn't any reason to chase prices higher, with world wheat supplies still considered to be adequate and weather expected to be favorable for U.S. spring wheat, a trader said.

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is slated to issue an update on spring wheat and winter wheat condition ratings at 4 p.m. EDT in its weekly crop progress report. Good-to-excellent ratings should be unchanged for winter wheat and unchanged to up 1 percentage point for spring wheat, according to Citigroup.

 

A week ago, the USDA said 76% of U.S. spring wheat was in good-to-excellent condition. It said 45% of winter wheat was good to excellent a week ago.