Wheat futures in Chicago reached a multi-month high in the course of trading on Friday. Following the publication of the USDA report, however, they ended the trading day mixed. The US winter wheat acreage estimate of 30.804 million acres was slightly higher than market expectations of 30.664 million acres, but marked the lowest acreage since 1904. At 1.834 billion bushels, the US wheat quarterly stocks estimate was higher than the 1.917 billion bushels expected by the market. Weekly US export sales were disappointing at only 130,600 tons of US wheat, well below market expectations of 200,000 - 550,000 tons. Institutional investors bought 3,500 contracts of CBoT SRW wheat on Friday. This morning, eCBoT is trading slightly weaker.
On Euronext in Paris, wheat futures took a breather after the increases of the last few days and fell slightly on all dates. French exporters could face a shortage of grain in the second half of January if the ongoing strikes in France over the pension reform continue to hamper rail transportation, reports Soufflet. Bids for standard 12% protein wheat on the Hamurg cash market for January delivery remained unchanged at 4.00 euros over Paris March 20.
Source
HANSA Terminhandel
