Wheat rebounds from two-week low after USDA report

Wheat futures rose nearly two percent in American trade away from April 6 lows for the third session, as the dollar index eked out gains away from March 27 lows, following earlier data from the US, the world's second largest wheat exporter, and as rainfall forecasts in southern US hills diminish. 

As of 07:35 GMT, wheat futures due on May 15 rose 1.61% to $4.8925 from the opening of $4.8150, while the dollar index inched up 0.14% to 89.64 from the opening of 89.52. 

The Federal Reserve released the Beige Book earlier today, which derives its importance from being release two weeks before the Federal Open Market Committee's meeting, and upon which policymakers depend for their policies to support the economy. 

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley spoke about the economic outlook and monetary policy at the City University of New York's Lehman College, while Federal Reserve Governor Randal Quarles is due to speak at the Bretton Woods Committee Annual Meeting, in Washington DC.

The US Department of Agriculture's report on Tuesday showed only 31% of winter wheat harvest is good or excellent, compared to 30% in the previous week, and much lower than 52% in the same period of last year. 

The USDA also reported 483.06 thousand tonnes of inspected wheat in the week ending April 12, up from 431.48 thousand in the previous week, and 685.44 thousand tonnes in the same period of last year, with total inspected wheat product in the marketing year starting June amounting to 20.9 million tonnes, down from 23.2 million in the previous year. 

Last Thursday, The US Department of Agriculture reported wheat sales of 120.7 thousand tonnes last week, up 11% from the previous week, while down 46% from the four-week average, with Mexico at the top of the buyers list at 54.4 thousand tonnes, followed by Vietnam at 48.3 thousand tonnes, and Japan at 35.6 thousand, then Malaysia at 15.7 thousand, while Indonesia and unknown buyers cancelled orders of 33.5K and 28.1K respectively. 

Otherwise, the USDA recently released its monthly report on supply and demand projections, raising expectations for US wheat inventories in the marketing year of 2017-2018 by 30 million bushels to 1.064 billion bushels, while maintaining wheat prices projections between $4.6 and $4.7 per bushel. 

The USDA raised forecasts for global wheat supplies by 3 million tonnes, while expecting another record high for output at 759.8 million tonnes, with growth in supplies expected to surpass consumption growth, while global wheat inventories are expected to rise by 2.3 million tonnes to 271.2 million tonnes.