Paris wheat futures prices ended little changed on Wednesday after earlier hitting new contract lows, as the market remained pressured by harvest supplies and chart-based selling. Trading was subdued as market participants awaited a US government crop report on Thursday and further indications on a rain-hit wheat harvest in Germany.
December milling wheat, the most active contract on the Paris-based Euronext exchange, settled 0.25 euros higher at 167.75 euros ($197.17) a tonne. It earlier set a fresh contract low of 167.00 euros, with dealers citing spread trading against firmer Chicago futures. Paris prices have been curbed by large crops in the Black Sea region and a better than expected harvest in France, despite uncertainty over rain damage in Germany and elsewhere in northern Europe.
Grain markets were turning their attention to Thursday's monthly supply and demand report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which will give clues to US and world supply prospects. Traders were also awaiting a clearer picture in Germany, where heavy summer rain has delayed harvesting and threatened to spoil wheat quality.
"I think nationally only 40 percent of the crop has been harvested and only around 15 percent in the main north and eastern export regions," one German trader said. Rain fell in north Germany on Tuesday night and more is forecast up to Saturday, making wheat too wet to harvest and fields often too soft for harvesters to drive on. There were rising expectations of a larger than normal share of the German crop would be graded as animal feed wheat, but traders said it was still too early to give precise figures.
Standard bread wheat with 12 percent protein content was offered for sale unchanged at 3.5 euros over the Paris December contract for September delivery in Hamburg.
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