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The Kansas City Board of Trade wheat futures volume on Wednesday, August 2 amounted to 39,711 contracts, exceeding all previous single-day volume records. The previous record of 37,253 contracts was set on February 24 of this year. Each wheat futures contract represents 5,000 bushels, with trading volume yesterday amounting to 198.56 million bushels.
Wednesday was the second day of side-by-side trading (electronic and open outcry) at the KCBT. Of the 39,711 contracts traded, 31,645 contracts were traded by open outcry and 8,070 were traded electronically. More information about side-by-side trading is available at www.kcbt.com.
"Setting an all-time wheat futures trading volume record on just the second day of side-by-side trading exceeded our initial projections,” said KCBT President and CEO Jeff Borchardt. “The transition was seamless – a tribute to the hard work and preparation of the KCBT operations staff and the market operations department of the CBOT. We are confident that the new trading opportunities provided by side-by-side trading will result in the continued record growth of this contract, the world benchmark for ‘bread’ wheat.”
Traders at the KCBT noted there was buying interest on Tuesday in response to weather forecasts that put heat back in the forecast for the Midwest by the beginning of next week.
The KCBT wheat futures market saw moderate gains on Wednesday. The KCBT September contract closed up 3 1/4 cents the December contract closed up 4 3/4 cents, the March contract closed 5 1/2 cents higher and the July 2008 contract closed up 9 1/2 cents.
The Kansas City Board of Trade, chartered in 1876, is the world's largest futures market for hard red winter wheat. This year, the exchange is celebrating its 150-year anniversary.
