March Wheat finished down 1/2 at 783, 5 1/4 off the high and 7 up from the low. July Wheat closed up 1/2 at 823. This was 7 up from the low and 4 off the high. March wheat finished the day with a fractional loss after spending the session trading in a relatively narrow range on both sides of yesterday’s close. Wheat lost moderate ground to corn on the day in light trade by spreaders. Wheat failed to find much support from weakness in the dollar during the day session with traders mainly evening up ahead of the Christmas holiday. The USDA announced a sale of 100,000 tonnes of US hard red winter wheat to Iraq this morning. This was for delivery during the 2010/11 crop marketing year. In addition, traders report that Algeria bought at least 200,000 tonnes of optional origin durum wheat for delivery in January. However, traders also report that Tunisia rejected offers on its tender for 25,000 tonnes of soft wheat and 25,000 tonnes of durum today. This week’s export sales were in line with trade expectations at 590,500 tonnes for the current marketing year and 6,500 for next year for a total of 597,000. Sales were dominated by hard red winter and hard red spring wheat with Egypt and Jordan showing up as the biggest buyers. As of December 16, cumulative wheat sales stand at 74.1% of the USDA forecast for 2010/2011 versus a 5 year average of 73.4%. Sales need to average 369,000 tonnes each week to reach the USDA forecast. March Oats closed up 1 3/4 at 393 1/2. This was 7 1/2 up from the low and 2 off the high.

Bron: CME