EU Wheat Closing Comments - Monday

06/12/10 -- EU wheat closed a seesaw session mostly lower with Jan London wheat GBP0.45 easier at GBP187.00/tonne and new crop Nov down GBP0.35 at GBP156.00/tonne. Jan Paris wheat was unchanged at EUR235.25/tonne and Nov was 0.25 lower at EUR209.25/tonne.

Wheat traded sharply higher early in the session, with London wheat setting another fresh 2 1/2 year high for a front month and Paris wheat also hitting contract highs. Profit-taking kicked in later in the session, dragging most months into slightly negative territory by the close of play.

Even so the underlying trend is undoubtedly upwards, with weather concerns over Australia, China and the US foremost in traders' minds. Quality wheat volume keeps diminishing with excess rains already having taken their toll on Canadian and German wheat earlier in the season, the same now seems to be happening Down Under.

ABARE will report on Australian wheat production tomorrow.

Quality EU wheat supplies are getting tighter by the day too, with some eastern European nations already hanging up the sold out signs.

Only modest planting increases are forecast for EU soft wheat for the 2011 harvest, with the French Ministry today predicting just 2% more went into the ground this autumn. Agreste peg the area for next season at 5 million hectares, winter barley plantings meanwhile are seen falling for the second year in a row to 1.1 million hectares.