Commodity fund trader Refco Inc was a late buyer of 1,000 March contracts, traders said. Floor sources said Refco was a broad-based buyer late in the day of wheat, corn, soyameal, soyaoil and rice.
The late buying spree triggered a rebound in CBOT soyabeans, and spillover buying from the soya complex helped push March wheat through resistance at $3.06-1/4.
Overall wheat volume was estimated at 15,578 futures and 1,247 options.
The CBOT closed early at noon CST (1800 GMT) on Thursday and will remained closed on Friday in observance of New Year's Day. Trading is scheduled to resume with the overnight e-cbot session on Sunday.
Wheat drew early support from short-covering and bullish technical signals in Wednesday's close. March wheat settled lower on Wednesday at $3.03-1/2 but edged above the short-term chart support level of $3.03-1/4, its 14-day moving average.
Export news was mostly bearish. The US Department of Agriculture reported US wheat exports for last week at 338,200 tonnes, below estimates for 350,000 tonnes to 500,000 tonnes.
Pakistan confirmed it bought 400,000 tonnes of wheat from Australia and Canada and none from the United States.
Egypt bought 345,000 tonnes of wheat early Thursday, including 110,000 tonnes from the United States. The rest of the purchase involved 175,000 tonnes from Argentina and 60,000 tonnes from France.
Talk of a possible purchase by Iraq of up to 500,000 tonnes of US wheat continued to circulate in the wheat market.