EU Wheat Ends Lower In Quiet Trade

EU wheat closed a little lower Friday in a quiet trading session devoid of fresh news.

Paris May milling wheat closed down EUR0.50 at EUR137.00/tonne, and London November feed wheat closed down GBP0.75 at GBP121.50/tonne. An indication of just how quiet things were is that in London the only 92 lots traded all day.

In a market becoming increasingly dominated by outside influences, even they were few and far between Friday.

Crude oil was flat all day ahead of this weekend's OPEC meeting, and for once even the stock markets had little inspiration to offer with the FTSE, German DAX and French CAC all barely changed on the day.

Strategie Grains lowered their estimate for 2009 EU-27 wheat production this week by 1.5mmt from last month, citing lower plantings in the UK, Spain & France.

Export interest for EU wheat remains flat with Russia continuing to pick up any decent tenders with their seemingly inexhaustible supply of wheat. With the rouble having fallen by around a third against the dollar in the last six months, and the largest wheat crop since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 under it's belt, we can expect them to remain ultra-competitive.