At the conclusion of trade for the month of February, year-to-date exchange volume was 19.3 percent ahead of volume at this point in 2003 and 22.5 ahead of the same time period in 2002. A total of 521,525 contracts traded during January and February of 2004, compared to a total of 437,066 in 2003 and 425,702 in 2002. Wheat futures year-to-date volume through February amounted to 472,388 contracts, an increase of 27.4 percent compared to last year at this time.
Total KCBOT volume for the month of February was 271,450 contracts, an increase of 24.6 percent over February 2003 volume. Volume traded during the month of February was larger than in any previous February in exchange history. The previous record, set in 2000, was 259,030 contracts.
KCBOT wheat futures trading volume was largely responsible for the spate of new volume records as volume for the month of February was 249,923 contracts, 32.7 percent more than February 2003 volume and a new record for the calendar month of February. The previous February record was set in 2000 when 244,609 contracts were traded.
Several different factors led to the surge in wheat futures volume: Concerns about dry weather conditions in some hard red winter wheat growing areas as evidenced by decreases in the good-to-excellent category for the Kansas and Oklahoma crops according to the USDA; Advance speculation regarding the outcome of the mid-February visit by COFCO, China's official buying program; Fund liquidation of old-crop positions.
The Kansas City Board of Trade, chartered in 1876, is the world's largest futures market for hard red winter wheat.
