EU Wheat Closes Sharply Lower As Harvest Advances

EU wheat futures closed sharply lower Thursday, with London wheat crashing into double figures for the first time this year as harvesting advances across Europe.

Paris November milling wheat futures closed down EUR4.00 at EUR130.00/tonne, and London November feed wheat ended down GBP3.00 at GBP98.50/tonne.

The magnitude of the drop of London wheat was maybe a tad surprising given that the pound fell out of bed after the BoE announced more QE measures.

The BoE appear to be giving out some mixed signals, and not really maintaining an air of confidence that they genuinely know what they are doing. Last month QE was on hold and this month it's back on. Hardly inspiring.

EU weather has improved somewhat this week, allowing for further harvest advancement, and yields are generally a little better than expected in many places, according to reports.

US markets were also under pressure all day, which added to the negative tone for Europe, even though Egypt heavily favoured French wheat in a tender today.

State-owned GASC booked 210,000 MT of wheat in a tender today with 180,000 MT of it French wheat and only 30,000 MT Russian wheat, despite the Black Sea origin being around $3/tonne cheaper.