Paris wheat futures ended slightly higher on Friday, coming off an earlier one-week low, as Chicago grain prices steadied after a day-earlier slide sparked by a forecast for a record US corn yield. Paris futures were also underpinned by demand from Algeria and chart support at current levels.
December milling wheat on Paris-based Euronext settled up 0.25 euro, or 0.2 percent, at 160.50 euros ($187.06) a tonne. It earlier touched a new one-week low at 160.00 euros, but again held chart support around that level. Grain markets were dampened on Thursday by the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) monthly crop forecasts, which included a record forecast for this year's US corn harvest yield.
"Corn is the centre of attention after the USDA report. Prices are recovering a bit on the US market, where there are a lot of short positions," a European trader said. US corn futures hit a one-year low on Thursday before edging higher on Friday. US wheat also rose slightly on Friday as the market weighed up the USDA's downward revision to projected US wheat stocks against record global inventories.
The prospect of a wave of exports to Algeria, France's core overseas wheat customer, also lent some support to Euronext. Algeria's state grains agency OAIC bought 210,000 tonnes of optional-origin milling wheat in a tender that closed on Thursday, traders said, in a deal expected to be at least partly sourced in France.
A series of wheat loadings for Algeria also suggested French wheat would be chosen for a chunk of previous purchases made by the North African country. Port data showed about 90,000 tonnes of wheat were currently loading for Algeria in France, and that another 120,000 tonnes were due to start loading in the week ahead. Also in France, weekly data from farming agency FranceAgriMer showed that farmers had sown 90 percent of the expected soft wheat for next year's harvest by November 6.