Wheat futures are surging to finish the trading week after the US government reported larger-than-expected export sales of the agricultural commodity. Can wheat eliminate its weekly loss by the end of the trading session?
December wheat futures tacked on $0.07, or 0.97%, to $7.3175 per bushel at 13:32 GMT on Friday on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBoT). Wheat is on track for a weekly loss of 0.2%, but it is still up 14% year-to-date.
According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), export sales of US wheat beat forecasts of grain experts this week.
The USDA’s latest export sales report found that wheat sales totaled 567,600 metric tons, mostly driven by acquisitions by Mexico, the Philippines, Taiwan, Nigeria, and El Salvador.
The market had penciled in a gain of between 250,000 tons and 500,000 tons.
Corn and soybean transactions matched median estimates. Corn sales totaled 1.04 million tons, while soybean shipments hit 1.15 million tons.
Earlier this week, USDA published its monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report for October. It forecast that ending wheat stocks would clock in at a decade low of 580 million bushels, down 35 million bushels from previous estimates. It also projected that US exports would stay the same at 875 million bushels.
One of the biggest developments this week was China increasing its 2022 wheat minimum purchases as part of the government’s efforts to revive its reserves.
In other industry news, analysts are warning that Russia could lose its global wheat market share as its export tax weighs on the sector. Andrey Sizov, managing director of SovEcon, stated exports will tumble if the levy continues to imbibe exporter and farmer profits.
Moscow has imposed an export tax to curb soaring food inflation.
In other agricultural commodities, November corn futures jumped $0.065, or 1.26%, to $5.2325 per bushel. December soybean futures picked up $0.075, or 0.62%, to $12.1375 a bushel. December coffee futures shed $0.003, or 0.14%, to $2.0895 per pound.Wheat futures are surging to finish the trading week after the US government reported larger-than-expected export sales of the agricultural commodity. Can wheat eliminate its weekly loss by the end of the trading session?