EU Wheat Closing Comments

EU wheat closed mixed, with London lower and Paris flat to slightly higher. London May feed wheat closed down GBP0.60 at GBP97.90/tonne, and May Paris milling wheat ended unchanged at EUR127.00/tonne.

The pound was relatively strong for once, which pressured UK wheat lower compared with Paris material.

As might have been anticipated it was a pretty subdued day ahead of tomorrows USDA plantings and stocks reports. For wheat, nobody can quite make their mind up whether US farmers will plant more or less spring wheat this year, although the average trade guess is for a little bit more (13.56 million against 13.3 million last year).

The undeniable fact that US wheat is overpriced, relative to EU and Black Sea grain, might encourage a few more to consider corn, soybeans or cotton than the market generally expects in my opinion.

Corn plantings are seen significantly higher already (circa 2.5 million acres), with soybean sowings also likely to see a more modest increase (around 1 million acres) as far as the trade is concerned.

This report frequently throws up a major surprise, so hold onto your hats as tomorrow afternoon and Thursday could be volatile, especially ahead of the long weekend.