US wheat futures were higher across the board on continued short covering leading into the break. The catalyst seemed to be optimism from the US / China trade deal as well as some good numbers for US weekly export shipments. It’s one thing to put the sales on it’s another to actually execute that sale and get it shipped. Good exports shipments are crucial.
The USA were not the only major exporter reporting sales for December,  Russia has also seen a sharp increase in export interest in recent weeks. Russian wheat exports for the first 10 days of December totalled 674kt.

The main futures driver does appear to be the US / China trade deal news however. Yes the boy has called wolf again and the markets are out hunting. Last week March wheat at Chicago was oversold, a quick look at the charts show it’s probably more neutral now and with another night of buying could well end up over bought again. The catalyst for a sell down may come when the speculators get sick of waiting for China to agree or deny the US$50Bn in purchases of US ag products is actually something China agreed to and is not just a number plucked out of the air.
Last week US cash prices for corn, basis, didn’t exactly follow futures higher. Basis fell at many cash locations. Yesterday did see some basis improvement though. This might be more to do with a lot of corn in the far north being covered in snow than a bunch of guys lining up to load boats to China with corn or ethanol.