Friday’s double digit selloff flipped the week’s move to net lower across the U.S. wheat futures. Chicago prices were down by 17 to 18 ½ cents on the day. That left May SRW at a net 15c loss for the week. KC wheat futures weakened by 3.2% to 3.9% by Friday’s close, ending 1 ½ cents under last Friday. Spring wheat futures were also double digits lower on the last trade day of the week as May closed a net 3c in the red wk/wk.
CoT data showed managed money funds were closing shorts and adding longs in SRW, reducing their net short by 12k contracts to 56k contracts as of 2/27. The funds were still 42k contracts net short in KC wheat after adding near equal positions to both sides during the week. CFTC data showed spec traders were 1,801 contracts more net short in MGE wheat for the week now at 25,968 contracts.
Russia’s SovEcon has Feb wheat shipments at 3.8 MMT, which is up from 3 MMT last season. The 23/24 total was forecasted at 48.6 MMT, which is below USDA’s 51 MMT forecast.
Ukraine’s Ag Ministry reported spring wheat planting is underway, as 800 HA were planted in the South as of 3/1.
The week’s Export Sales data had 327.3k MT sold for the week of 2/22. That was up 40% for the week and was 15% above 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 of HRS, 4.6 MMT of SRW, 3.7 MMT of white and 3.3 MMT of HRW.
Mar 24 CBOT Wheat closed at $5.60, down 17 1/2 cents,
May 24 CBOT Wheat closed at $5.57 3/4, down 18 1/2 cents,
May 24 KCBT Wheat closed at $5.64 1/2, down 22 3/4 cents,
May 24 MGEX Wheat closed at $6.43 3/4, down 15 1/4 cents,
On 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 solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Disclosure Policy here.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
