US wheat outlook remains bearish
By Joanna Levin
THE market for US wheat remains extremely bearish, burdened by a global overhang of old-crop supplies and the prospect of an excellent North American harvest.
Most Chicago brokers are looking for a further price slide, despite a drop in wheat returns to new lows this week.
Contracts for May wheat lost 13¢ over the week to close at 298¢/bushel (179p/bushel) on Thursday, 9 April. Values were driven lower by a1.4 million tonne increase in the USDA estimate of last years global end-of-season stocks to 19.8m tonnes.
On the brighter side, weekly export sales of 300,000 tonnes were towards the high end of traders expectations and up 47% on the previous week.
But some analysts warn that this is insufficient to turn the market around. And with consumption unlikely to increase, only a serious disruption to supply will raise US wheat prices.