Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures jumped on Friday as U.S. farmers moved closer toward finishing the nation’s winter wheat harvest.

Spillover support from gains in CBOT corn and soy helped support wheat, traders said.

U.S. wheat markets are no longer facing such heavy pressure from winter wheat harvesting because it is winding down in key states, analysts said.

In the U.S. Plains, the hard red winter wheat harvest was largely complete, and selling by farmers was slow, merchants said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is slated to issue a weekly update on harvest progress in a report on Monday.

French farmers had harvested 71% of the soft wheat crop by July 14, with field work well ahead of the usual pace, data from farm office FranceAgriMer showed.

Traders said they continued to monitor low arrivals of new-crop wheat at ports in Russia, the world’s biggest wheat exporter. Slow farmer selling has hindered export business there, especially for high-protein wheat, they said.

CBOT September soft red winter wheat (WU25) closed up 12-3/4 cents at $5.46-1/4 per bushel after falling on Thursday to the lowest price since May 14. The contract ended up 0.2% for the week.

K.C. September hard red winter wheat (KWU25) ended 11-1/2 cents higher at $5.29 a bushel.

Minneapolis September spring wheat (MWEU25) was last up 1/2 cent at $5.95-1/2 a bushel. The contract earlier matched a May 19 low it reached on Thursday.
Source: Reuters