Turnaround Tuesday for Wheat Futures

After the Monday drop, wheat prices were back up by more than a percent on the Turnaround Tuesday. Chicago wheat ended with 2.6% gains of 15 ¾ to 16 ¼ cents. That left March with a net 6 ¼ cent loss for the week’s move. KC HRW futures closed 22 to 24 ½ cents with gains of nearly 4%. Spring wheat futures ended 17 ¾ cents higher on the day, though March was a nickel off the high for the settle.

Wheat exports were 281,697 MT for the week that ended 12/07, according to the USDA’s Export Inspections report. While seemingly small, that was a 50% increase for the week, and was up 60k MT from the same week last year. The report had white wheat at 103k MT of the total and HRS as 96k MT of the total. The accumulated wheat exports reached 8.6 MMT, compared to 11.1 MMT at the same point last year. 

The French Agriculture Ministry reported that farmers planted ~5% less winter wheat this go around, with 4.5m HA. That is also ~5% under the 5-yr average. 

Russia is a small producer of durum wheat and is restricting exports for that class between now and June.  This is presumably because exports through mid-November were over 650,000 MT compared to only about 52,000 MT a year ago. 

Mar 24 CBOT Wheat  closed at $6.25 1/2, up 16 cents,

May 24 CBOT Wheat  closed at $6.35 1/2, up 16 1/4 cents,

Mar 24 KCBT Wheat  closed at $6.56 3/4, up 24 1/2 cents,

Mar 24 MGEX Wheat  closed at $7.29 1/2, up 17 3/4 cents,