Cereals News, 01.11.2024

Yesterday's Halloween session ended with losses for wheat futures on all three major exchanges. Forecasts by meteorologists predicting heavy rainfall in key US growing regions in the coming days could benefit newly sown wheat stocks. This news provided bearish impetus on the markets.

At the same time, the weekly export sales report showed cumulative wheat bookings of 411,424 tons, which marks a 5-week low and is at the lower end of estimates of 300,000 to 600,000 tons. Mexico was the largest buyer with 169,600 tons, followed by the Philippines with 79,500 tons. On Thursday, Algeria bought an estimated 480,000 tons of wheat in its latest tender, presumably from the Black Sea region.

Wheat prices on Euronext were also unable to stay in the green and recorded slight losses at the close of trading. The European Commission cut its production forecast for wheat in the EU in 2024/25 by 2 million tons to 112.6 million tons. In addition, the final stock forecast was lowered by 1.3 million tons to 10.4 million tons.

On the US corn market, contracts on the CBot did not find a consistent direction. The December contract closed slightly down at 410.75 US cents/bushel (148.72 €/t), while later deliveries recorded moderate gains. Export bookings amounted to 2.3 million tons in the week ending October 24, which was in line with analysts' expectations, but represented a decline of 35% compared to the previous week. At around 600,000 tons, Mexico was again the largest buyer. In Paris, March maize on Euronext fell by €2.25/t to €207.50/t.

The EU Commission lowered its maize harvest forecast for the EU by 2.1 million tons to 58.0 million tons, which is 1.0 million tons below the USDA's latest estimate in its Wasde forecast.