OREANDA-NEWS. February 06, 2015. Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures rose nearly 3 percent on Thursday, reaching a 1-1/2-week high, on prospects for sales of US wheat to Egypt coupled with technical buying and a softer dollar, traders said.

Funds hold a net short position in CBOT wheat, leaving the market open to bouts of short covering.

K.C. hard red winter and MGEX spring wheat futures followed the higher trend at the CBOT.

Egypt's state grain buyer could buy US wheat to make use of a \\\$100 million credit line made available to it by the United States.

USDA reported export sales of US wheat in the week ended Jan. 29 at 397,700 tonnes for 2014-15 and 89,300 tonnes for 2015-16, in line with trade estimates.

Russia will export no more than 28 million tonnes of grain in the 2015-16 crop year, the Agriculture Ministry said.

Exchange operator Euronext said it will launch a new wheat futures contract next month in response to urgent calls for it to adopt higher quality standards for grain traded on its Paris-based market.

The European Union this week granted export licenses for a record 1.67 million tonnes of soft wheat, official data showed. EU wheat has benefited from a drop of the euro against the dollar in recent weeks, as well as easing competition from Russia which has imposed duties on wheat exports.