March Wheat finished up 5 at 858 3/4, 10 3/4 off the high and 7 1/4 up from the low. July Wheat closed up 8 1/2 at 916 3/4. This was 8 1/4 up from the low and 6 1/4 off the high. The market closed higher on the session but well off of the overnight highs. A surge higher in import demand on the world market over the weekend helped support solid gains early in the session but news that a bulk of the actual sales are going to other exporters plus weakness in other grains helped the market give back much of the early gains. Egypt bought 170,000 tonnes of US, Argentina and Australia wheat over the weekend and aggressive new tenders were also announced from several North Africa and Middle East countries. Turkey tendered for 300,000 tonnes, Iraq for 100,000 tonnes, Algeria for 50,000 tonnes and traders believe Iran and Saudi Arabia may also be in the market soon. After the weekend tender, Iraq bought 300,000 tonnes of wheat with 50,000 US and 250,000 from Australia. Iraq flour prices have tripled over the last two months and this may have prompted the increased demand. The dry western section of the winter wheat belt might receive trace to 1/2 inch of moisture this week which could ease some of the stress. Similar small amounts of rain could hit some of the China winter wheat areas this week. Traders expect to see exports to pick-up soon due to tightening supply at other key exporters as a reason to suspect lower ending stocks in the supply/demand update for Wednesday morning. Traders see a decline of near 10 million bushels from 818 million posted last month. Weekly export inspections for wheat came in at 29.7 million bushels which was higher than expected and compares with 30.5 million bushels as a weekly average necessary to reach the USDA projection. Cumulative inspections have reached 60.4% of the USDA forecast for the season as compared with 68.9% as the 5-year average for this time of the year. March Oats closed up 5 1/2 at 421. This was 13 up from the low and 1/2 off the high.

Bron: CME