Related Keywords: Agriculture Email Print | December wheat was 10 1/4 cents higher overnight. The dollar turned moderately lower overnight. December wheat posted a modest recovery overnight after falling sharply yesterday. Traders and analysts indicate that yesterday’s selling was prompted by a number of factors including rains in Russia that could allow winter wheat planting to advance, particularly in more northern growing areas. More rains are forecast in the region next week. In addition, on-going forecasts for adequate world wheat supplies into the end of 2010/11 and for ample US wheat supplies may be dampening the enthusiasm of buyers in both cash and futures markets. Weakness yesterday was also attributed to selling in wheat by spreaders versus corn. Floods in Pakistan have added that country to the long list of areas with crop problems in wheat this year, but forecasts of actual damage to wheat production may be more limited than first assumed. A bigger problem for Pakistan may be the loss of wheat stocks as well as the loss of 3.0 million tonnes of rice according to the latest estimates released by the UN Foreign Agriculture Organization. This could shift demand to wheat as a substitute for the lost rice. The FAO also estimated at floods may have damaged 3.2 million hectares of cropland in Pakistan, or about 14% of the total area. Egypt bought 240,000 tonnes of wheat yesterday with origins reported to be Canada and France. This is for delivery in early October. Traders indicated that this may have also caused some disappointment for bulls yesterday since US wheat was not included in the sale. Officials in Kazakhstan said yesterday that they plan to buy between 2.0 and 2.5 million tonnes of wheat from domestic farmers as a hedge against domestic food inflation. The Customs Service in Ukraine reported today that it would continue making its quality checks on wheat exports despite complaints from cash traders. They added that these checks could be extended to other grains. A major grain analyst in Russia said today that the country may need to import up to 6 million tonnes of grain this year due to the effects of the drought. The Russian government has not announced any intention to import grain, but there have been reports that they hope to lock up supplies from neighboring Black Sea producers such as Ukraine and Kazakhstan.Bron:CME