Wheat Futures Close Red on Friday

The front U.S. wheat futures faded into the weekend, but had held onto a weekly gain. Chicago futures ended the session with 11 ¼ to 12 cent losses, which left March at a net 7c gain to close over the $6 mark. KC wheat futures were down by 9 ½ to 12 ¼ cents on the day, with March at a net 16 ¾ cent gain for the week. Spring wheat futures finished the last trade day of the week with 6 to 7 cent losses, but March held onto an 8c gain for the week’s move. 

The weekly CoT report showed managed money spec traders were closing Chicago wheat positions during the week that ended 1/23. That on net reduced their net short by 4k contracts to 65,541. The KC wheat specs were adding positions, but the net new buyers offset the net new sellers for a 312 contract weaker net short of 38,340 contracts as of 1/23. The funds were also adding positions in Minneapolis wheat during the week, with 4.7k new contracts in play (37,666 total) and a 30,290 contract net short.  

Weekly Export Sales data showed 451,368 MT of wheat was sold for 23/24 delivery and 59k MT for new crop. That came in near the top end of the expected range but was still down 36% for the week and 10% under the same week last year. USDA had Mexico as the top buyer.  Wheat export commitments (shipped plus outstanding) are 3% larger than year ago, and 84% of the full year WASDE estimate. 

SovEcon raised their outlook for Russian wheat production by 900k MT to 92.2 MMT. That remains 600k MT below this season’s production figure. 

EU wheat exports were shown at 17.4 MMT for the season through 1/19. That trails last year’s pace by 7.6%. 

Mar 24 CBOT Wheat  closed at $6.00 1/4, down 12 cents,

May 24 CBOT Wheat  closed at $6.10 3/4, down 11 1/4 cents,

Mar 24 KCBT Wheat  closed at $6.24 3/4, down 12 1/4 cents,

Mar 24 MGEX Wheat  closed at $7.03 1/2, down 5 1/2 cents,