March wheat was down 5 1/2 cents overnight. The dollar was slightly lower. With a perceived overbought condition and what some traders see as better weather, the news of interest rate hike in China plus better weather for harvest in Australia is helping to put a lid on the wheat market rally. While the US market is down, Paris wheat futures pushed to a new high. Drier weather in Australia wheat areas this week is expected to help improve conditions for the matured wheat crop. March wheat finished the session Thursday with a fractional loss after spending the session trading in a relatively narrow range on both sides of Wednesday’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 holiday. The USDA announced a sale of 100,000 tonnes of US hard red winter wheat to Iraq. 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. Weekly export sales for wheat came in 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 16th, cumulative wheat sales are in line with historical norms. Sales need to average 369,000 tonnes each week to reach the USDA forecast.

Bron: CME