EU Wheat Futures End Lower

EU wheat futures closed lower Wednesday, in a technical correction from recent gains as the dollar fell across the board.

Paris March milling wheat closed down EUR4.25 at EUR147.25/tonne, whilst London March feed wheat closed down GBP0.80 at GBP111.45/tonne.

Yesterday's heavy volume was missing today with only around half the number of lots traded.

Sharply weaker crude oil weighed on the market later in the session as did lower equities once America opened.

Sub-zero temperatures across much of Europe may be having an impact on winter wheat. Damage may have affected 15-20% of the Polish wheat crop according to analysts MDA EarthSat Weather Services.

The crop there was already estimated 6-8% lower than 2008's crop of 9.28mmt before temperatures plunged to minus 10 degrees recently.

Egypt is tendering tomorrow for 55-60,000 US/Argy/Kazakh or Canadian wheat along with 25-60,000mt Russian/Ukraine/French or UK milling wheat.

I think we can guess where the latter order will go.

The US attaché in Argentina has lowered his estimate for this current season's crop to 9.5mmt citing "severe drought and export policy factors that impacted negatively on this year's crop."