Technical sales and losses at the soya and corn complex weighed on wheat quotations yesterday in Chicago. However, the prospect of extreme cold in major US wheat-growing regions prevented more pronounced discounts. In the state of Kansas, temperatures of below minus 18 degrees Celsius are expected early next week. Today at 2.30pm, the USDA releases weekly US export sales. Market analysts expect wheat exports in a range of 250,000 - 550,000 tons. Institutional investors yesterday sold 1,000 lots of CBoT SRW wheat. The eCBoT is trading with moderate losses at the moment. Once again very weak sales, the wheat futures on the Euronext in Paris followed the negative overseas and closed with losses. The volume on the front month of March was as low as last in October. The fixed exchange rate of the euro against the US dollar is weighing heavily on the competitiveness of euro area wheat. Yesterday it rose again by 0.5%. Throughout 2017, the exchange rate increased by more than 13%. This is the strongest performance since 2003.
