Friday’s double-digit selloff reversed the week’s move to a net lower across US wheat futures. Chicago prices were down 17 to 18 ½ cents on the day. That left May SRW at a net 15c loss for the week. KC wheat futures eased 3.2% to 3.9% by Friday’s close, ending 1 ½ cents below last Friday’s. Spring wheat futures were also double digits lower on the last trading day of the week, as May closed a net 3c in the red wk/wk.
CoT data showed managed money funds closed short and added long in SRW, reducing their net short by 12k contracts to 56k contracts as of 2/27. The bottoms were still 42k contracts net short in KC wheat after adding almost equal positions to both sides during the week. CFTC data showed spec traders were 1,801 contracts net short in MGE wheat for the week now at 25,968 contracts.
Russia’s SovEcon has February wheat shipments at 3.8 MMT, up from 3 MMT last season. The 23/24 total was forecast at 48.6 MMT, which is below USDA’s 51 MMT forecast.
Ukraine’s Ag Ministry reported that spring wheat planting is underway, as 800 HA have been planted in the South as of 3/1.
The Export Sales data for the week had 327.3k MT sold for the week of 2/22. That grew 40% over the week and was 15% over the same week last year. Traders were looking for between 200k and 500k MT going into the data release. Total commitments sat at 18.16 MMT, which is 6% ahead of last year’s pace and includes 6 MMT from HRS, 4.6 MMT from SRW, 3.7 MMT from white and 3.3 MMT from HRW.
Mar 24 CBOT Wheat closed at $5.60, down 17 1/2 cents,
24 May CBOT Wheat closed at $5.57 3/4, down 18 1/2 cents,
24 May KCBT Wheat closed at $5.64 1/2, down 22 3/4 cents,
24 May MGEX Wheat closed at $6.43 3/4, down 15 1/4 cents,
As of the date of publication, Alan Brugler 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 for informational purposes only. For more information, please see Barchart’s Disclosure Policy here.
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