Wheat Maintains Weekly Gain Despite Friday Pullback

Wheat futures faded into the weekend, but held onto a weekly gain. Chicago futures were down by as much as a dime on Friday, though March was still up by 13 cents vs last Friday. KC wheat futures dropped by 5 to 8 cents on the last trade day of the week, though March held onto a weekly gain of 1 ½ cents. The March HRS/SRW spread now favors SRW with a 4 ¾ cent premium. March options are no longer active as the delivery process nears. Spring wheat futures finished out 7 ¾ to 9 ¾ cents weaker on Friday and a net 13 ¼ cents lower for the week. 

Weekly CFTC data showed managed money traders were 68.5k contracts net short in SRW wheat, a 13k contract stronger net short for the week after net new selling. Spec traders were also net sellers of HRW wheat during the week that ended 2/20. The group was reported with a 42k contract net short at the settle. The weekly CoT report had Minneapolis spec traders with a 24.2k contract net short in HRS as of 2/20, vs a 24.8k contract net short the week prior. 

The weekly wheat export sales were 233,500 MT for the week that ended 2/15. That was below the range of estimates and down 34% from the week prior. 98.5k MT of the total were listed as HRW, which was a 5-wk high for the class. The report also had 46.6k MT of new crop wheat sales for the week. 

Japan purchased 115,921 MT of wheat in their weekly MOA tender, with 30,435 MT US origin and the rest split between Australia and Canada.

Mar 24 CBOT Wheat  closed at $5.73 1/2, down 9 3/4 cents,

May 24 CBOT Wheat  closed at $5.69, down 10 1/4 cents,

Mar 24 KCBT Wheat  closed at $5.68 3/4, down 5 1/4 cents,

Mar 24 MGEX Wheat  closed at $6.41 1/2, down 9 3/4 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 Barchart Disclosure Policy here.