Wheat Heads Lower into the Close

Wheat futures slipped lower on Thursday across all three exchanges, following a less than supportive Export Sales report. Chicago SRW futures were fractionally to 3 cents lower in the front months.  Kansas City HRW contracts were down 3 to 7 cent in most nearby contracts. MPLS spring wheat was fractionally to 2 cents weaker across most contracts.

Export Sales data showed just 273,980 MT of wheat sold in the week of August 1 for the current marketing year, a 5-week low for sales and on the low end of estimates. The top buyer was Taiwan at 105,700 MT, with Japan at 63,100 MT. There was an additional 112,000 MT sold for the 2025/26 MT.

The monthly WASDE report will be out on Monday, with the trade showing expectations for a slight increase to all wheat ending stocks from July at 859 mbu, up 3 mbu. That would likely come from an expected hike to production. 

An updated estimate for EU wheat production from Strategie Grains shows a 5.8 MMT drop to their production estimate at 116.5 MMT. That was mainly due to a sizable cut to the French crop, now at 25.6 MMT and the lowest since 1986. 

Japan purchased a total of 83,445 MT of wheat in their weekly tender from the US, Canada, and Australia, as 27,925 MT was sourced from the US.

Sep 24 CBOT Wheat  closed at $5.37 1/2, down 3/4 cent,

Dec 24 CBOT Wheat  closed at $5.61 1/2, down 1/2 cent,

Sep 24 KCBT Wheat  closed at $5.51 1/2, down 4 cents,

Dec 24 KCBT Wheat  closed at $5.68 3/4, down 3 1/2 cents,

Sep 24 MGEX Wheat  closed at $5.85 1/4, down 1/2 cent,

Dec 24 MGEX Wheat  closed at $6.05 1/4, down 1 1/2 cents,