Technical purchases and the prospect of drier weather for the coming days in the US Plains hit wheat futures sharply higher on Friday in Chicago. In a weekly comparison, however, they fell by 1.6%. The weekly export sales were in line with market expectations with a total of 428,600 tonnes of US wheat. A survey of 1,400 US farmers in March showed that total wheat acreage for 2018 will increase by 0.5% yoy to 46.2 million acres. Institutional investors bought 6,000 lots of CBoT SRW wheat on Friday. The eCBoT is moderately firmer this morning. At Euronext in Paris, wheat futures were unable to benefit from the price hikes overseas and closed down on all dates. The rise of the euro against the US dollar weighed on the market as it worsened the competitiveness of euro area wheat in the world market. As of March 19, FranceAgriMer awards the top rating "good to excellent" to only 79% of French winter wheat stocks. Last week, 80% of the holdings received the top credit.The French cash market rebounded last week and benefited from a lower rally in the recent rally than its rivals from Russia and the United States.
