Pre-Opening Wheat Market Report for 10/21/2010
Related Keywords: Agriculture Email Print | December wheat was 1 1/4 cents higher overnight. The dollar was moderately lower. December wheat remains in a sideways pattern that dates back to early August. One analyst notes that this is an unusually long period of relative price ‘balance’ following a rally of the magnitude that we saw this summer when December wheat rallied nearly $4. He indicates that similar rallies in the past in wheat have been followed by either a bigger setback or a resumption of the uptrend within a month or two of the initial high. Funds were buyers in wheat yesterday, but to a far lesser extent than in corn or soybeans, and wheat lagged significantly behind those two markets by the end of the day. Weather forecasts in the US continue to call for increased rain in winter wheat areas, starting today with a system of showers and thunderstorms that is moving into the SW Plains. This system is expected to move further into the southern Plains and extend into the western and central Midwest by the weekend. Some forecasts have an extended period of additional rain falling in the Midwest soft red winter wheat belt next week and possibly longer. This would be very beneficial since much of the region is dry. Planting progress for all winter wheat had reached 80% as of this past Sunday. Rains in eastern Australia are not welcome, with some sources reporting that this could delay harvest there by up to three weeks. While this is considered mostly an export problem at this point, persistent rains could start to diminish the quality of the Australian wheat crop. Russia’s agriculture minister reported yesterday that harvest is complete on 92% of the country’s grain crops. The USDA will issue its latest weekly Export Sales report today and traders are looking for a number close to or in excess of the 464,800 tonne average needed each week to reach the USDA’s current export projection. Japan bought 122,861 tonnes of wheat on its regular weekly tender. Tunisia is tendering to buy 25,000 tonnes of durum.