EU Wheat Closing Comments

November London wheat slumped GBP4.60 to close at GBP158.20/tonne, whilst November Paris wheat closed EUR3.00 lower at EUR226.75/tonne.

A strong performance by the pound, which rose close to 1.22 against the euro and above 1.55 versus the dollar pressured London wheat.

French wheat managed to garner some support from news of a 240,000 MT clean sweep in today's Egyptian soft wheat tender. The market however remains nervous ahead of Friday's USDA world supply and demand numbers.

Adding further pressure was news of higher than anticipated Canadian wheat and rapeseed stocks from Stats Canada. They pegged all wheat stocks some 19% higher than anticipated at 7.82 MMT, the most in four years. Canola stocks were more than 40% higher than anticipated at 2.123 MMT, a near record for this time of year.

Weather conditions in Ukraine have improved considerably, coupled with the recent spike, farmers there are now expected to increase winter wheat plantings.

In Southern and Eastern Australia crop conditions look like being the best in years, and despite a lack of rainfall in many parts of Western Australia, wheat production nationally might top 24 MMT this season, according to ANZ.

Things are also bucking up in Argentina, with widespread rains in the past 7-10 days and the prospect of more to come.

In the US, winter wheat planting in Oklahoma got a needed boost from Tropical Storm Hermine after Central Texas got heavy, soaking rainfall from this storm yesterday, according to Martell Crop Projections.