MGE spring wheat higher

Spring wheat futures on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange climbed to 11-year highs on Thursday, following a limit-up surge in Chicago Board of Trade wheat, traders said. Bullish export data lifted both markets.
The US Department of Agriculture reported export sales of US wheat for last week at nearly 2.1 million tonnes, well above trade estimates for 950,000 to 1.1 million and the largest weekly total since 1996. "Buyers are looking for the cheapest wheat, and the US is competitively priced," one Minneapolis trader said. However, pressure from the onset of the US spring wheat harvest limited advances in Minneapolis.
September spring wheat settled up 9 cents at $6.46 per bushel, after reaching $6.59, a contract peak and the highest spring wheat spot price since 1996, according to the Commodity Research Bureau.
December closed up 10 cents at $6.57 and back months were up 4 to 8-1/4 cents. UBS Warburg bought 400 September contracts, traders said. Volume was estimated by the exchange at 7,586 contracts and 1,595 cash exchanges. At the CBOT, September wheat closed up 17 cents at $6.51 after rising to $6.64, a new 11-year high spot price.
Concerns about the European wheat crop remained supportive. In Paris, French milling wheat futures soared to historic highs as anxiety over global and French supplies prompted speculative buying.
French agency ONIGC cut its estimate of the French soft wheat crop to less than 34 million tonnes, from its previous forecast of 35 million. Extreme hot weather this week in the northern US Plains and Canadian Prairies threatened to cut spring wheat yields. But scouts on the Wheat Quality Council's US spring wheat tour continued to report better than average crop prospects.
After the close, the tour in its final report projected the average 2007 US spring wheat yield at 37.3 bushels per acre, up from the 2006 tour estimate of 31.7 and above the tour's five-year average of 35.1. The tour projected an average durum yield at 29.0 bushels per acre, up from 23.3 bushels last year and the five-year tour average of 27.3.