Wheat is starting Friday with slight weakness across the three markets. The wheat complex was in rally mode on Thursday. KC HRW futures led the wheat rally, with gains of 10 ½ to 29 ¼ cents, led by the front months. Modest new buying interest was noted, with open interest up 4,270 contracts. Chicago SRW futures were up 10 to 13 1/4 cents in most contracts. Open interest was down 10,382 contracts, mostly in the front month May (12,320). MPLS spring wheat was 6 to 10 ½ cents in the green in at the close.
Weekly Export Sales from Thursday morning showed, with old crop business seen at 129,022 MT for the week of April 16, up from the previous week. Japan was the lead buyer of 59,400 MT, with 47,400 MT sold to Nigeria. New crop sales were just 8,000 MT, mostly to South Korea.
The 7-day forecast is calling for limited of up to an inch for western portions of KS with little to no precip in the TX and OK panhandles. The update to the Drought Monitor from this morning shows 70% of the US winter wheat crop in drought. That is the largest since 2023 and the most for this part of the growing season since 2022.
IKAR estimates the Russian wheat crop at 90 MMT, a 1 MMT drop from their previous number. The French soft wheat crop was estimated at 83% Good/Excellent according to FranceArgiMer, a drop or 1 percentage point from the previous week. Saudi Arabia also issued a tender to buy 710,000 MT of wheat, with a deadline set for Friday.
The world wheat production estimate from International Grains Council was trimmed by 1 MMT, with projected use falling 4 MMT. World ending stocks were raised by 8 MMT to 284 MMT.
May 26 CBOT Wheat closed at $6.10 3/4, up 11 1/2 cents, currently down 1 cent
Jul 26 CBOT Wheat closed at $6.20 1/4, up 13 1/4 cents, currently down 1 1/2 cents
May 26 KCBT Wheat closed at $6.66 3/4, up 29 cents, currently down 6 1/4 cents
Jul 26 KCBT Wheat closed at $6.79 1/4, up 29 1/4 cents, currently down 7 1/2 cents
May 26 MIAX Wheat closed at $6.75 1/2, up 9 1/4 cents, currently down 2 1/2 cents
Jul 26 MIAX Wheat closed at $6.92 1/2, up 10 1/2 cents, currently down 3 cents
On the date of publication, Austin Schroeder did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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