The previous record of 15,017 contracts or 75.085 million bushels was set two years ago on Jan. 13, 1999.
Traders attributed the heavy volume to a combination of fundamental and technical factors. On Thursday the USDA released reports on annual wheat production, December wheat stocks and winter wheat seedings. Fundamentally, these numbers drove the market.
According to the USDA reports, wheat stocks were 1,802 million bushels, 82 million bushels less than last year and 17 million bushels below industry estimates. Total winter wheat seedings decreased 4.7 percent from last year, whereas the industry was expecting a 2.8 percent decrease. Winter wheat seedings of 41.31 million acres were at the lowest level since 1971.
The overall disparity between what the industry had expected and the actual numbers released by the USDA put bullishness into the KCBT wheat market in spite of some bearish USDA numbers for corn and soybeans.
Technically, the KCBT March wheat contract traded at $3.40, a price level it had not reached since March 2, 1998. This factor spurred additional technical trading activity, traders said. The KCBT March contract closed at $3.37 1/2, up 1 1/4 cents from the previous day.
Traders noted that problems with crops in other wheat growing areas, namely China, Argentina, Australia, France and India have lent additional strength to the market and prices have good upward potential.
"We are excited to see such heavy volume during January, which typically is a fairly slow trading month overall," said KCBT President Robert Petersen. "We hope to set many more records in 2001."
