Chicago Board of Trade soft red winter wheat futures rose 1.8% on Thursday on a round of short covering and technical buying after falling for the previous five sessions, traders said. K.C. hard red winter wheat futures also were higher but MGEX spring wheat futures weakened after a six-session rally pushed them to a nearly three-month high.

The benchmark CBOT December soft red winter wheat contract broke through its five-day, 40-day and 50-day moving averages after finding support at its 20-day moving averages. The US Agriculture Department on Thursday morning said export sales of wheat totalled 283,100 tonnes in the week ended September 19 compared to 286,589 tonnes a week ago. Analysts' forecasts for weekly wheat export sales ranged from 200,000 tonnes to 500,000 tonnes.

Copyright Reuters, 2019