EU Wheat Closing Comments

EU wheat futures closed lower with May London feed wheat down GBP1.15 at GBP96.75/tonne, and May Paris milling wheat EUR1.75 easier at EUR125.75/tonne.

The long awaited USDA numbers came in a little bearish, but maybe didn't really warrant the downwards slide that we ultimately saw in CBOT wheat futures,

March 1st ending stocks were 30% up on last year, but they were expected to be so, all wheat plantings were forecast 500,000 acres up on what was expected, but that wasn't too bad really.

If anything wheat was dragged lower by increases in soybean and corn plantings, and higher March 1st stocks figures than anticipated.

A weaker dollar didn't help the cause too much today, but ultimately that shouldn't really make too much difference as US wheat is overpriced anyway.

Talk that Black Sea exporters are caught between a rock and a hard place abound. Rumour is that short sellers are suddenly finding it difficult to fulfil existing contractual obligations and some are defaulting on cheap sales.

Ukraine have been very aggressive sellers all through the season to date, and logic dictates that they must have very little physical wheat left available.