Wheat Market Rises as Planting Pace Lags Behind Average
The wheat market started the week on a positive note, with contracts gaining between 5 to 7 cents. The Chicago SRW was up fractionally by 4 cents in the front months, while deferred contracts were lower by 1¼ to 6½ cents. Open interest increased by 181 contracts on Tuesday.
The Kansas City HRW futures posted gains of 1¼ to 3¾ cents at the close, with a slight increase in open interest. In contrast, Minneapolis spring wheat slipped by 2½ to 3¾ cents.
A key report released this week showed that only 27% of winter wheat was planted as of Sunday, lagging behind the 5-year average planting pace by 7 percentage points. Emergence was at 8%.
Tomorrow, the NASS will release their quarterly Grain Stocks data, which is expected to show a drop in September 1 wheat stocks by 277 million bushels compared to last year's level. The production via the Small Grains Summary is forecasted to be trimmed by just 3 million bushels.
A South Korean importer is tendering for 100,000 MT of wheat from the US with a deadline of Wednesday. Meanwhile, EU Wheat exports from July 1 to September 27 are estimated at 6.81 MMT, up 0.02 MMT from last year's level.