December wheat was 2 1/2 cents higher overnight. The dollar was mixed. December wheat traded in a very narrow range near its 2-week lows overnight with limited direction from outside markets. The Buenos Aires Grains Exchange in Argentina raised its projection of this year’s wheat crop to 12.1 million tonnes yesterday versus 11.3 to 12.0 million on its previous weekly report. This has come on improved moisture over the past two weeks. Forecasts also call for improved moisture in some US winter wheat growing areas, although this weekend’s rains may not bring much relief to the Midwest. More substantial moisture is coming to the southern Plains where showers and thunderstorms with locally severe weather have moved from the Texas Panhandle across Oklahoma over the past 24-36 hours. Even heavier rains are possible in eastern Oklahoma this weekend. The system is expected to move into Kansas by the weekend although rains there may be lighter. Rains are expected to be light to moderate and somewhat scattered as they move into the western Midwest this weekend and on through parts of the central Midwest and into the Great Lakes region. Weekly export sales came in at 574,000 tonnes. Cumulative sales stand at 55.4% of the USDA forecast for 2010/2011 versus a 5 year average of 59.9%. Sales need to average 461,000 tonnes each week to reach the USDA forecast. The European Union cleared 621,000 tonnes of wheat exports this week, up sharply from last week’s total. Traders report that Thailand bought near 100,000 tonnes of US spring, winter and white wheat for delivery in December while millers in neighboring Malaysia are said to be covering December-January needs.