CBOT wheat rallies for seventh trading day on weather, crop conditions
Wheat climbs as weather concerns fans short-covering
Rain forecasts hover over grain market
Corn flat, soybeans lower on U.S. planting weather questions
Rewrites throughout, updates prices, adds analyst quotes, changes byline, dateline from PARIS/SINGAPORE
By Renee Hickman
CHICAGO, April 26 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) wheat futures turned higher for a seventh trading day on Friday on a weather driven surge that pushed the most-active wheat contract on a continual chart Wv1 to prices not seen since December.
Soybean futuresinched down, and corn stayed fairly flat, as traders watched for U.S. planting delays as heavy showers are forecast in the Midwest in the coming days.
Corn also drewsupport from stronger-than-expected weekly U.S. export sales, though slower soybean exports underscored competition from Brazil, analysts said.
CBOT's most-active July wheat WN24 contract was up 6-1/4 cents at $6.26-3/4 a bushel by 12:20 CDT (1720 GMT). Earlier in the session, that contract hit a high of $6.33-1/4 a bushel, the highest price since Jan. 11.
Dry weather in parts of southern Russia and the central U.S., as well as freezing weather in parts of Europe continued to propel short covering, although weather forecasts showed greater chances of rain next week in both regions.
"They need rain last week," said Darrin Fessler of Lakefront Futures. "The wheat's going backwards in a big way and in a hurry," he said.
The European Commission on Thursday cut its forecast for the European Union's main wheat crop in 2024/25 to a new four-year low, underscoring a drop in area after rain-disrupted planting.
Analysts said that U.S. Department of Agriculture'sweekly crop progress and conditions report released late Monday - which showed 50% of winter wheat in good to excellent condition, down from the previous week's report at 55% of the crop good to excellent - added fuel to the futures rally this week.
But the price surge was expected to ease going into next week, they said.
"I think they kind of overdid it," said Joe Davis, director of Commodity Sales at Futures International. He expected wheat to bump up slightly or flatten on Monday.
CBOT July corn CN24 was up 1/4-cent at $4.52-1/4 a bushel and July soybeans SN24 were 3-3/4 cents lower at $11.76 a bushel.
Reporting by Renee Hickman; Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore
Editing by Marguerita Choy
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