Wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade closed lower Friday on technical selling and plentiful global supplies, analysts said. CBOT March wheat settled down 6-3/4 cents at $4.31-1/4 per bushel after dipping to $4.30, its lowest since February 9. For the week, the contract fell 9-3/4 cents or 2.2 percent. K.C. March hard red winter wheat fell 4 cents on Friday to close at $4.53-3/4 a bushel while MGEX March spring wheat rose 3/4 cent to $5.44-3/4.
Expectations of record-large harvests in Argentina and Australia, at a time of already-burdensome supplies, hung over the market. Traders shrugged at better-than-expected weekly US export sales. The US Department of Agriculture reported weekly export sales of old-crop US wheat at 451,300 tonnes, in line with trade expectations, and sales of new-crop wheat at 256,500 tonnes, above expectations.
The USDA at its annual outlook forum projected US all-wheat production for marketing year 2017/18 at 1.837 billion bushels, down about 20 percent from the previous year, and ending stocks at 975 million bushels. Farm office FranceAgriMer said 93 percent of French soft wheat crops were in good or excellent condition as of February 20, up slightly from 92 percent a week earlier.