Hard red winter wheat spot basis bids in the US Plains flattened out on Thursday, holding mostly steady around the Plains amid some light demand and a slowdown in country sales, traders and merchants said. The Gulf track basis dropped 4 cents a bushel, but bids overall were mostly unchanged. And after dropping off sharply earlier in the week, protein premiums for railcar wheat to and through Kansas City were steady.

Cash traders said some mill demand showed up at mid-week, and a narrowing of the inverted spread between prices for March and May wheat led to a slowdown in country movement.

The Kansas City Board of Trade futures market settled 3-3/4 to 5-1/2 cents lower on Wednesday, with March down 5-1/4 cents at $3.25-1/4 per bushel and May down 5-1/4 cents at $3.15-3/4.

The market was called steady to 1 cent higher on Thursday in a bounceback from the losses, with support from weekly export sales, traders said.

The US Department of Agriculture said Thursday that weekly export sales of US wheat last week totalled 623,200 tonnes, above estimates for 250,000 to 400,0000 tonnes.

In other export news, South Korea bought 22,000 tonnes of US wheat and Japan bought 86,000 tonnes of wheat with 45,000 tonnes coming from the United States.

Copyright Reuters, 2005