US Plains hard red winter wheat basis bids were mostly steady on Wednesday, with merchants describing a mostly quiet market. Trucks remained in short supply in some areas, though merchants were looking for more availability as fertiliser season drew to a close.
Seeding continued to progress, and farmers were closely monitoring weather reports, with rain welcomed. Kansas City Board of Trade wheat futures were expected to open 3 to 5 cents higher on Wednesday in a bounce back from the market's downturn earlier this week.
KCBT wheat closed 5 to 8-3/4 cents per bushel lower on Tuesday, with December down 5 cents at $8.38 per bushel, while March wheat closed down 8 cents at $8.44. The market noted news that French arable crop office ONIGC said on Wednesday it had cut its estimate of the country's 2007 soft wheat crop to 31.64 million tonnes from 32.28 million projected last month and 33.3 million harvested in 2006.
ONIGC put France's wheat ending stocks at 2.09 million tonnes, well below the revised estimate of 2.4 million last month and 2.52 million at the end of last season.