Wheat Prices Hover Near 7-mth High, Set for Weekly Gain of 3 pct

(Reuters) – U.S. wheat prices on Friday lingered near a seven-month peak touched the session before, remaining on track for a weekly gain of around 3 percent on expectations of strong U.S. exports.

FUNDAMENTALS

The most active wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade are up more than 3 percent so far this week, set for their biggest weekly gain in five weeks.

Wheat hit a seven-month high of $4.44 a bushel on Thursday.

The most active soybean futures are up nearly 2.5 percent for the week in what would mark their first such gain in three weeks.

The most active corn futures are up more than 1 percent for the week, on course for a second weekly gain.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture raised its U.S. wheat export forecast the 2016/17 season by 50 million bushels, citing a strong pace of U.S. wheat export shipments, which resulted in a reduction in ending stocks to 1.139 billion bushels, compared to analyst expectations for 1.186 billion.

The USDA cut Argentine soybean production to 55.5 million tonnes, down from 57.0 million in January. But that was above the Rosario grain exchange estimate of 54.5 million tonnes on Wednesday.

The USDA kept its estimate for Brazil’s 2016/17 soy output unchanged at 104 million tonnes, compared to a forecast from Brazil’s Conab earlier on Thursday for a record of 105.6 million.

The USDA also slashed its estimate for U.S. corn ending stocks.

MARKET NEWS

The dollar stood atop large gains early on Friday after soaring broadly overnight on comments by U.S. President Donald Trump that he would announce the most ambitious tax reform plan since the Reagan era in the next few weeks.

Oil prices were stable early on Friday, with OPEC-led production cuts supporting the market while soaring U.S. fuel inventories were weighing on crude.

Wall Street’s three main indexes surged to fresh record highs on Thursday.