Euronext wheat futures edged lower on Thursday after their recent rally ran out of steam with traders awaiting U.S crop data. December milling wheat on Paris-based Euronext settled down 0.50 euros, or 0.3 percent, at 166.50 euros ($196.14) a tonne, after rising in each of the three previous sessions. It had peaked this week at 168 euros - a price not previously touched since August 10 except during a trading glitch on September 11 - but failed to break chart resistance at that level.
Chicago wheat futures retreated from a seven-week high struck a day earlier as investors adjusted positions before Friday's US Department of Agriculture estimates on quarterly grain stocks and 2017 wheat production. "There is a bit of sitting on hands going on ahead of the stocks report tomorrow," one futures dealer said. "The lack of farmer selling is also a fairly consistent theme."
Reluctant selling by farmers at current prices has been a factor cited in rising wheat markets this month, along with higher prices in top exporter Russia, uncertainty over harvest prospects in Argentina and Australia, and short-covering by investors. Increased forecasts for world wheat and grain production from the International Grains Council (IGC) on Thursday, however, underlined a backdrop of ample supply.
A steadying in the euro, after it slipped to a more than one-month low against the dollar on Wednesday, also curbed Euronext prices. Traders were also awaiting results from a wheat import tender held by Algeria on Thursday. The focus was on price levels, with French wheat widely expected to cover most of the purchase given limited availability of alternative origins. Bids were cited at $213-214 a tonne, cost and freight included, compared with a $205 level reportedly sought by Algerian grains agency OAIC, traders said.
French port data showed limited loading activity for wheat but export prospects were more favourable for French barley. Reduced export availability in Ukraine and Russia meant west European barley was well placed to claim sales in a tender for 540,000 tonnes issued by Saudi Arabia on Thursday, traders said. A vessel was also due to load 66,000 tonnes of feed barley in France for China in what would be the first such shipment in a year, port data showed.