PARIS: Euronext wheat slid on Friday to fresh multiweek lows, tracking losses in Chicago as beneficial rain for Midwestern crops and a US Supreme Court ruling on biofuel exemptions weighed on grain markets.
September milling wheat on Paris-based Euronext settled down 3.00 euros, or 1.5%, at 201.50 euros ($240.47) a tonne.
Slipping below Thursday’s four-week low of 203.50 euros, the front-month contract earlier set its weakest level since April 13 at 200.75 euros.
The more active December futures ended down 2.75 euros at 202.50 euros, after touching a four-week low at 201.50 euros.
The new-crop contracts were being underpinned by chart support around 200-202 euros, traders said.
Heavy rain forecast in part of the US Midwest, including in the top corn growing state of Iowa, has curbed grain prices this week. Further selling pressure came on Friday from the US Supreme Court decision lending support to efforts by small oil refineries to win exemptions from requirements to incorporate biofuel, which is made with crops including corn and soyaoil.
“The rain is playing a part but the acceleration in the price fall came from the Supreme Court ruling,” a futures dealer said.
Favourable winter wheat harvest prospects across Europe and the Black Sea region have also weighed on Euronext.
“Competition in export markets could be fierce with improving production prospects for the world’s leading wheat exporter, Russia,” British merchant Frontier Agriculture said in a note. News of a shipment of Russian wheat to Algeria and talk of recent Australian wheat sales to China has raised doubts about French prospects in its top two export markets.
Wheat crop conditions in France declined in the week to June 21 while winter barley harvesting was just starting, farm office FranceAgriMer said.
Weather forecasts showing further showers into next week were raising some concern about French crops, although drier, warmer weather expected at the start of July was seen as reassuring for later-developing crops in the north, traders said.
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