Soft red winter (SRW) wheat futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed lower on Thursday with the market hit by a poor number for wheat in USDA's weekly export sales report, traders said.
"Every exporting country in the world has wheat available right now, there's just no big demand for it," a veteran wheat trader said.
A steep slide in soybean futures also triggered some spillover speculative selling in the wheat pit, they said.
CBOT wheat closed 7 to 11-3/4 cents per bushel lower, with September down 11-3/4 at $3.33-1/4.
Volume was estimated at 27,348 futures and 6,925 options.
USDA early Thursday said US wheat export sales last week were at 312,400 tonnes, vs. expectations for 400,000 to 500,000 tonnes. In routine business, South Korea overnight bought 21,000 tonnes of US wheat and Japan bought 85,000 tonnes of US wheat.
Reports that low-quality US winter wheat that had been damaged by wet weather was being discounted and priced as feed wheat also weighed on the market, pit sources said.
Some underpinning may have surfaced from the firm cash basis market for SRW in the Midwest. Cash dealers said farmer selling was fairly active but the demand was good, which was helping keep the cash basis market on firm footing. Dealers in northern Ohio reported occasional loads of wheat with vomitoxin but said it was not a widespread problem.
Wheat traders also kept an eye on European wheat production prospects.