Wheat futures gave up early morning gains

Wheat futures gave up early morning gains and moved to the minus side in midday trade Thursday, but KCBT and MGE futures managed to shave losses by the close. Today’s weekly export sales report is another disappointing week. There is still a 220 million bu. gap between wheat sales year-to-date and where they “should” be based on the 5-year history of sales to date versus end-of-year total on May 31. It’s raising odds USDA will have to lower its U.S. export forecast again in the December WASDE update. The early week enthusiasm over rumored export business to Brazil evaporated when no such sales showed up in this morning’s report. There’s still “some” underlying bullish support due to ongoing dry weather in the U.S. central and southwestern Plains as well as concern for dryness in southeastern Europe, the lower Volga River Basin and “some” locations in France. But shortly after the close the International Grains Council came out with its first global wheat acreage forecast for 2013 and put it at 223.2 million hectares, a 15-year high. At the close, CBOT March wheat was down 5 ¾ at $8.85 ½; KCBT March was down 1 ¼ at $9.35 and MGE March was down 1 ½ at $9.51 ¼.