Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) wheat futures fell to a six-week low on Thursday, while K.C. wheat futures dropped to new contract lows across the board, amid technical selling and traders scrambling to respond to disappointing export sales. Chicago Board of Trade's March soft red winter wheat settled down 15-1/4 cents at $5.07 per bushel, ending a four-session rally in prices. Earlier in the day, it fell to a low of $5.06 per bushel, the lowest since Jan. 3.
K.C. March hard red winter wheat ended down 12-1/2 cents at $4.81-1/2 a bushel, while MGEX March spring wheat fell 5 cents to $5.74-3/4 a bushel. The US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) export sales report showed net sales of US wheat totaling 161,400 tonnes (old- and new-crop years combined) in the week ended Jan. 3, as the agency continues to clear a backlog caused by the US government shutdown.
Analysts were expecting net sales of 200,000 to 500,000 tonnes. Private analytics firm IEG Vantage, formerly known as Informa Economics IEG, on Thursday projected total US wheat seedings for 2019 harvest at 46.782 million acres, down from its January figure of 47.163 million.
The firm's all-wheat forecast includes 31.290 million acres of winter wheat - matching the US Department of Agriculture's Feb. 8 estimate - plus 13.640 million acres of spring wheat other than durum, and 1.852 million acres of durum wheat.
Algeria's state grains agency OAIC purchased 600,000 tonnes of milling wheat at around $247-$247.50 a tonne, cost and freight included, in a tender that closed on Thursday, European traders said. The prices paid were seen as aggressive and represented a sharp decrease compared with the $261.50-$262 a tonne Algeria paid in its previous tender in early January.
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