EU Wheat Close

20/10/10 -- November London wheat ended up GBP1.65 at GBP161.75/tonne, with November Paris wheat unchanged at EUR211/tonne.

The inverse on Paris wheat continues to erode as nearby longs exit the market. November finished the day at just a EUR0.50/tonne premium to January and EUR1.50 over March.

Open interest has fallen by more than half in recent weeks, from 140,000 lots at the start of September to under 63,000 lots last night. Indeed, as spec longs roll into January open interest there is now greater than that in Nov10, and Nov11 open interest is also slightly higher than nearby.

The pound had a yo-yo day, coming under pressure early on ahead of Chancellor George Osborne's spending review speech. However it had recovered lost ground by the end of the day as the news seemed relatively well received by the markets.

Chicago wheat opened higher in afternoon trade, dragged up by sharp gains in corn and soybeans again, which lent some late support to EU wheat.

The UK exported more than 200,000 MT of wheat in August, add to that what went out in July and the 2010/11 marketing year is off to a flyer with 468,000 MT marching out of the door. That's an increase of 75% on this time last year, according to agrimoney.com.