Pre-Opening Wheat Market Report for 9/2/2010
Related Keywords: Agriculture Email Print | December wheat was 6 1/2 cents higher overnight. The dollar moved moderately lower. Deliveries against the September futures contract were 3,467 with the total for the delivery period now at 11,584. Strong demand and an increasingly strong competitive position for US wheat on the world market are helping to bolster prices this week according to traders. The US and France are expected to be major competitors for wheat business in coming months, but France may have already sold half of its exportable surplus and some of the remainder may be diverted to neighboring Germany in coming months. Egypt bought all US wheat on yesterday’s purchase of 225,000 tonnes indicating a major shift in favor of the US in that market. Weather in Russia remains dry in the south which is considered beneficial to harvest progress and to maturing crops. However, grains that are still in the filling stage there continue to be stressed. Rains in northern growing areas in Russia are favoring developing crops, but they may be detrimental to mature crops as well as to harvest progress. The winter grains planting outlook is improved in the north, but still highly problematic in the south. Russian officials said earlier this week that they might ease some restrictions on grain exports. The details were not specified, but this is expected to involve limited transactions, possibly for humanitarian purposes. Weather in Australia continues to diverge between its western and eastern belts. The larger eastern belt is looking for a bumper crop with further upward revisions in production forecasts possible there, although it is still early in the crop growing season. The western wheat belt, which produces about 40% of Australia’s crop, still has major dry areas and forecasters are currently cutting production numbers in the west. Tunisia is also tendering for 50,000 tonnes of soft wheat along with 50,000 tonnes of durum for delivery in October and November. The Rosario Grains Exchange in Argentina forecast this year’s wheat crop at between 9.0 and 10.5 million tonnes yesterday. Last year’s drought-stressed crop was estimated at about 7.5 million tonnes. Planting has just been completed for wheat in Argentina.