May wheat was up 7 1/4 cents late in the overnight session. Outside market forces look positive today. Deliveries against the March contract came in at 364 contracts. Ideas that the US export pace might accelerate over the near term plus a poor weather forecast for the western Kansas and western plains region of the winter wheat belt has helped to support the market. The market has remained in a choppy and consolidation phase in the past 3-4 sessions, as traders have been absorbing poor US weather but improving conditions for the US crop. May wheat closed 1 cent higher on the session yesterday with a 35 1/2 cent range. The market surged higher shortly after the opening as traders indicated active wheat/corn spreading and supportive export news. Traders saw soft red wheat as cheap enough to compete as a feedgrain, and this helped support some of the spreading. The early rally pushed the market to its highest level since February 22nd before selling emerged to drive it to lower on the day into the mid-session. Traders see the weather outlook in the US as supportive to the market, but the sharp break in corn after July corn posted new highs for the move was seen as a negative development for the grain markets. The USDA announced that an "unknown" destination bought 220,000 tonnes of US hard red wheat yesterday. Weekly export sales will be watched closely this morning, with trade expectations up near 1 million tonnes compared with just 318,200 tonnes necessary each week to reach the USDA projection. Traders see strong demand from Middle East/North Africa countries and a tight supply out of Europe as reasons to suspect firm export sales. A break to the lowest level in four months for the US dollar is also seen as supportive. A port workers strike in Argentina may slow exports as well and push extra demand to the US.

Bron: CME