Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures closed lower on Thursday, following broad declines in commodity and equity markets on fears of economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, traders said. CBOT May soft red winter wheat settled down 7-1/4 cents at $5.05-1/2 per bushel, paring losses after dipping to $4.97-1/4, the contracts lowest since Sept. 30.

K.C. May hard red winter wheat ended down 2-3/4 cents at $4.32-3/4 a bushel and MGEX May spring wheat fell 3 cents to finish at $5.09. Contract lows were set in most MGEX spring wheat futures months. Top global wheat exporter Russia sees no need to trigger a grain export duty after sharp falls in its currency, the rouble, the agriculture ministry said.

The US Department of Agriculture reported export sales of US wheat in the week ended March 5 at 480,808 tonnes (old and new crop years combined), in line with trade expectations for 225,000 to 675,000 tonnes. Algeria's state grains agency OAIC bought around 680,000 tonnes of milling wheat in an international tender, European traders said. The origin of the grain is at the seller's option but most was expected to be sourced from France.