Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures were holding strong early on Thursday amid spillover support from a rally in soya and on supportive exports, traders said. At 10:09 am CST (1609 GMT), CBOT March wheat was up 2-1/2 cents per bushel or 0.85 percent at $2.95 per bushel. Other months were up 3 to 4-1/4 cents per bushel.

O'Connor and Co bought 600 May and Refco Inc bought and sold 200 May, pit sources said.

Traders said the export picture might have been a bit more supportive for wheat futures. USDA's export sales report early Thursday showed sales of US wheat last week at 623,200 tonnes (old-crop and new-crop combined). That's above estimates for 250,000 to 400,0000 tonnes.

Copyright Reuters, 2005