Why wait all week to see what occurred in the hard red winter wheat market? Daily market information is available by email in the KCBT Review newsletter.
Recent liquidation ahead of the new year continued to bring lower prices early on Monday, but some last minute short-covering activity brought higher prices by the close, traders said. Trading volume was light ahead of the holiday. On the day, prices were up 4 to 5 cents.
The Kansas City Board of Trade was closed on Tuesday in observance of the New Years holiday.
Heavy losses were seen on the first day of trading in 2013. There was strength in the market early Wednesday but then the market fell through some technical stops throughout the day. Outside markets were supportive early with Congress coming to a resolution of the fiscal cliff overnight, traders said. However, a lack of new export business and fresh news continued to overwhelm wheat futures, traders added. The market settled down 18 1/2 to 20 1/4 cents.
KCBT wheat futures traded both sides of unchanged on Thursday, finding some relief from the previous day's sharp sell-off, traders said. Some intra-market spread trade was seen in the marketplace. There was not a lot of news in the market, with the USDA export sales report delayed until Friday because of the holiday. The market settled mixed.
Liquidation activity came back into Kansas City HRW wheat futures Friday morning, with the market opening lower and taking out the low established on Wednesday, according to traders. This prompted more selling. USDA weekly wheat export sales were estimated at 400.4 thousand metric tonnes, within previous expectations of 350 to 550 thousand metric tonnes, traders said. There were some chances of light showers going forward for HRW wheat areas, but they seem to be too far east and a little disappointing, traders said. The market settled down 5 3/4 to 6 3/4 cents.
Other Items to Note:
- This week the protein premium scale was 15 cents higher on ordinaries through 11.4 percent, 19 cents higher on 11.6 percent, 17 cents higher on 11.8 percent, 13 cents higher on 12 through 12.4 percent, 9 cents higher on 12.6 percent, and 5 cents higher on 13 through 14 percent.
- Estimated trading volume for the week at the Kansas City Board of Trade was 62,227 contracts.
Click here to see more...