By Tony C. Dreibus Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Wheat prices rose, capping the first monthly gain since November, as investors unwound bets on falling prices. Futures in Chicago rose 9.5 percent in February. Speculative short positions, or bets on declining prices, outnumbered long positions by 42,044 contracts in the week ended Feb. 23, down from a record 60,457 contracts two weeks earlier, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed today. “There are enough shorts in the market that are nervous,” said Jim Hemminger, a risk-management specialist at Top Third Ag Marketing in Chicago. “The trend-following funds are so short. It’s easy to get some short-covering rallies.” Wheat futures for May delivery rose 15.5 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $5.1925 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. Earlier, the price reached $5.2025, the highest level for a most-active contract since Feb. 16. The grain rose 3 percent this week. The commodity tumbled 19 percent in the two months ended Jan. 29 as global inventories climbed. “We keep seeing these short-covering rallies that can end quickly,” Hemminger said. “They last one or two days and then we start lower again. World fundamentals for wheat are negative. Russia is talking about increasing the amount they’ll have available next year.” Wheat is the fourth-biggest U.S. crop, valued at $10.6 billion in 2009, behind corn, soybeans and hay, government data show. To contact the reporter on this story: Tony C. Dreibus in Chicago at Tdreibus@bloomberg.net.

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