Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures ticked down on Monday as traders positioned ahead of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's stocks and acreage report a day later, and large supply prospects weighed on futures, analysts said.
CBOT's most active September SRW wheat (WU26) contract ended down 10 cents at $5.79-3/4 a bushel, while July wheat (WN26) settled 8-3/4 cents lower at $5.69-1/2 a bushel.
K.C. September hard red winter wheat (KWU26) settled 4-3/4 cents lower at $6.14-3/4 per bushel, and the Minneapolis September spring wheat (MWEU26) ended down 4-1/2 cents at $6.00-3/4 a bushel.
The USDA is expected to report June 1 wheat stocks were up 9.2% from a year earlier, a Reuters poll of analysts showed.
Swift harvest progress in the United States, along with strong production prospects in the Black Sea export region, were also weighing on the wheat market, taking attention away from a severe heat wave in Western Europe over the past week.
Analysts expected spring wheat ratings to improve from the past week in a weekly U.S. Department of Agriculture crop progress report, to be released at 3:00 p.m. CDT. The USDA is expected to rate 55% of the crop in good-to-excellent condition as of Sunday, up from 54% a week earlier.
Winter wheat ratings were seen holding stable at just 26% good-to-excellent after a severe drought in the U.S. Plains wheat belt. If sustained, that rating would be the lowest on record for the 26th week of the year, according to USDA data that goes back to 1986.
A group of South Korean flour mills has issued an international tender to purchase about 100,000 metric tons of milling wheat to be sourced from the United States and Australia, European traders said on Monday.