US Wheat Harvest Pace Surpasses Expectations Amid Mixed Trade

Wheat prices have maintained mixed trade on Tuesday, with the Chicago market showing weakness. On Monday, the wheat complex experienced varied action as it closed out the session.

The Chicago SRW contracts saw fractionally mixed trade on Monday, while open interest was down 4,076 contracts that day. Meanwhile, KC HRW futures rose by a penny to 4 ¼ cents at the close, and MPLS spring wheat declined by 1 ¼ to 3 ¼ cents in the front months.

The latest NASS Crop Progress report showed that 96% of the US winter wheat crop was harvested by Sunday, which is 2% ahead of the normal pace. The spring wheat crop was 41% harvested, surpassing its 5-year average pace of 34%. Spring wheat conditions improved by 1%, with a rating of 52% good to excellent.

The Brugler500 index also rose back up 5 points to 344. In terms of exports, the weekly Export Inspections report revealed that wheat shipments totaled 493,401 MT (18.13 mbu) in the week of August 13. This represents a 1.54% increase from the previous week and is 22.43% larger than the same period last year.

The largest destinations for these shipments were Japan at 142,358 MT, Mexico with 114,636 MT, and Indonesia with 75,437 MT. As of now, wheat exports for the marketing year stand at 3.89 MMT (142.9 mbu), which is 19.29% lower than the same period last year.

The current prices for wheat futures are as follows: Sep 26 CBOT Wheat closed at $6.74 3/4, unch; Dec 26 CBOT Wheat was down 1/4 cent; Sep 26 KCBT Wheat rose by 4 ½ cents; and Dec 26 KCBT Wheat increased by 4 cents.