European wheat futures edged lower on Thursday, curbed by a steady euro and weak Chicago prices as trader adjusted positions in the run-up to the year-end holidays. March milling wheat, the most active contract on the Paris-based Euronext exchange, settled down 0.75 euro or 0.5 percent at 167.25 euros a tonne. It hit a near one-week low of 166.25 euros earlier before recouping some of the losses.
CME Group's March EU wheat futures closed down 0.25 euro at 173.50 euros. An earlier three-week low for Chicago wheat and a slight rise for the euro against the dollar, as the European currency consolidated above a 14-year low this week, weighed on a European market lacking impetus.
"It's been pretty stable on Euronext and in Chicago the last few days. There's not been enough fundamental news to change the trend," one physical broker said. Wheat markets remain capped by large global supplies that have intensified export competition and limited price support from winter weather risks to crops in the northern hemisphere.
Weekly export data suggested tepid demand for European Union and US wheat in the face of competition from Black Sea and southern hemisphere origins. The US government reported weekly wheat export sales of 298,000 tonnes, below a range of trade estimates, while equivalent EU data showed weekly soft wheat exports at a modest 246,000 tonnes.
German traders, however, were hopeful that a recent slide in the euro against the dollar would spur a run of exports, with Germany seen as well placed to win sales abroad while France is largely sidelined following a poor French harvest. "There is hope of more export sales early in the new year if the euro's recent weak trend continues and if the winter makes shipping difficult from Black Sea ports," a German trader said.
"But generally sellers are unwilling to follow Paris prices down." Standard wheat with 12 percent protein content for January delivery in Hamburg was offered for sale at an unchanged 4 euros over the Paris March contract. Buyers sought 3.50 euros over. Germany's winter wheat area planted in autumn 2016 for the summer 2017 harvest was little changed, up 0.4 percent on the year at 3.15 million hectares, the country's statistics office estimated. "As the poor summer weather this year greatly cut yields, unchanged plantings could still result in a sharp increase in the harvest size if there is normal spring and summer weather," another trader said.