EU Wheat Falls On Weekend Rains And Bearish USDA Corn Data

10/04/12 -- EU grains finished mostly lower with May 12 London wheat down GBP1.25/tonne to GBP170.50/tonne and May 12 Paris wheat falling EUR2.75/tonne to EUR208.50/tonne.

Weekend rains for the UK, France and Germany were viewed as bearish. Even so, FranceAgriMer said that France would harvest the smallest soft wheat planted area since 2033 this year due to winter kill losses.

Only 4.72 million hectares of the planted 5.07 million hectares will make it through to harvest, pegging winter losses at almost 7%, they said. This year's all winter grain area was estimated at 6.55 million hectares versus 7.1 million in March and down 5.7% from 2011.

The USDA raised world wheat consumption by around 3 MMT to 686.8 MMT, lowering ending stocks by a similar amount to 206.3 MMT, although that still ranks as one of the highest levels on record.

They surprised the market by leaving 2011/12 US corn ending stocks unchanged at 20.3 MMT, although world inventories were cut by almost 2 MMT to 122.7 MMT. They noted record high US ethanol stocks and reduced daily ethanol production in recent months since the abolition of the blenders' tax credit but left 2011/12 demand for corn from this sector unchanged at 5 billion bushels.

Last night the USDA increased their weekly spring wheat planting progress from 8% to 21% complete as of Sunday night, compared to just 3% last year and 5% on average. Winter wheat crop conditions also continue to show significant improvement at 61% good/excellent, from 58% a week ago and well ahead of the 36% this time last year.