Wheat Futures Pull Back Despite Late-Day Gains

Traders Await Key Reports After Mixed Performance in the Market

The wheat market experienced a rebound in late trading on Thursday, despite contracts ultimately closing lower due to pre-report position squaring. Chicago SRW futures dropped by 2 to 3 cents for the nearby contracts, while KC HRW showed steady to slightly lower performance across most contracts at the day’s end. Meanwhile, MPLS spring wheat futures fell by 1 to 2 cents.

The weekly Export Sales report has been pushed to Friday since government offices were closed for a National Day of Mourning for President Carter’s funeral. Analysts are anticipating wheat sales in the range of 150,000 to 500,000 MT for the week ending January 2.

In advance of the Winter Wheat Seedings report due on Friday, traders expect the USDA to reveal a total of 33.366 million acres planted with winter wheat. This represents a decrease of 24,000 acres from last year if confirmed. Specifically, HRW is projected to cover 23.73 million acres, SRW 6.14 million acres, and white wheat 3.49 million acres. The report will also include December 1 Grain Stocks data, with a forecast of 1.565 billion bushels in wheat stocks—an increase of 144 million bushels from the previous year. Ending stocks are projected to see a rise of 4 million bushels to reach 799 million bushels.

Globally, wheat ending stocks are estimated at 257.86 MMT, remaining nearly unchanged from the previous month’s estimate of 257.88 MMT.

Notably, Taiwan mills have procured a total of 114,650 MT of wheat from the US in their recent tender.

Mar 25 CBOT Wheat closed at $5.34, down 2 1/4 cents.

May 25 CBOT Wheat closed at $5.46, down 2 1/2 cents.

Mar 25 KCBT Wheat closed at $5.50 1/4, unchanged.

May 25 KCBT Wheat closed at $5.58 1/2, down 3/4 cent.

Mar 25 MGEX Wheat closed at $5.83 1/2, down 1 1/2 cents.

May 25 MGEX Wheat closed at $5.91 3/4, down 2 cents.

On the date of publication, Austin Schroeder did not hold any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data included is for informational purposes only. For more information, please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.

The views and opinions expressed herein belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.