EU Wheat Closing Comments

EU wheat futures closed mostly moderately higher with January Paris milling wheat futures trading up EUR1.25 at EUR130.00/tonne, and London May feed wheat closing up GBP0.35 at GBP110.25/tonne.

There are some concerns developing that very cold weather pushing in from the east might cause some crop damage.

Temperatures across Ukraine, the Volga region of Russia and the FSU plunged to 12 F across the weekend, yet large parts of this area have scant to no snow coverage at all. This makes winterkill a serious threat.

A very dry September/November period led to poor establishment, which is never a good thing in a cold climate, says Gail Martell of Martell Crop Projections.

For now however, export demand remains poor, with Egypt further muddying the waters by announcing even more stringent terms and conditions to it's standard wheat tenders.

These include a minimum vessel size of 60,000 MT and a strict one loading port rule, which hasn't been favourably met with by the trade.

Currency fluctuations and the influences of outside markets still remain a major factor, as too does the participation (or otherwise) of fund activity in the grains sector both here and in the US.