Euronext wheat futures were little changed by Wednesday's close as the market digested volatile Chicago prices and uncertainty over the impact of heavy rain on French crops. September milling wheat on the Paris-based Euronext exchange settled unchanged on the day at 164.75 euros a tonne after a session that saw light volumes.
It earlier fell to a one-week low of 164.25 euros in spillover from Tuesday's plunge in US wheat, before steadying after Chicago futures rebounded during the US daytime session. Traders continued to assess the impact of torrential rain in Europe, which has led to flooding in parts of northern France that is home to the country's biggest grain belts. After record precipitation in some areas since the weekend, more rain fell in northern regions on Wednesday and further showers were forecast for Thursday.
"We're seeing just the right conditions for the development of mycotoxins in crops," one trader said, stressing the combination of rain and moderate temperatures. The risk of crop disease, which could lead to some of the harvest being downgraded to animal feed wheat, was making producers reluctant to commit to forward sales, while also encouraging buyers to try and pick up more old-crop supplies, traders said. Uncertainty over harvest quality was expected to affect bidding in a tender being held on Wednesday by Algeria, which called for shipment in August during the harvest season.
In another sign of brisk recent export activity, France shipped a near-record monthly volume of 1.55 million tonnes of soft wheat outside the European Union in May, port data compiled by Reuters showed. Traders said last month's volume would have topped a previous record of 1.7 million without delays caused by rain as well as strikes over a government labour reform. France was also continuing to see strong export demand in maize, with a first shipment for Malaysia since at least 2000 due to load next week.