Wheat is steady to kick off the last trade day of the week, as contracts are mostly within 2 cents of unchanged. The wheat complex saw some double digit gains on Thursday, as a majority of the three exchanges were higher. KC HRW posted a 9 to 10 cent gain across most nearby contracts at the final bell. Preliminary open interest was down 5,377 contracts on Thursday, with September down 13,146 contracts (Goldman roll) and the others showing increased OI. CBT futures were 9 to 10 cents higher in the front months as well. MPLS spring wheat saw more marginal gains, with contracts up 2 to 5 cents.

USDA showed a total of 737,831 MT of wheat sold in the week ending on July 31, with a heavy focus on HRW (414,312 MT). That exceeded analysts’ estimates and was a MY high. The largest buyer was Nigeria of 185,900 MT, with 165,000 MT sold to Bangladesh and 105,900 MT to Mexico.

Expana (previously Strategie Grains) estimates the EU wheat crop at 132.8 MMT, which is up 2.1 MMT from their pervious number. The French Farm Ministry estimates the French wheat crop at 33.1 MMT,  0.5 MMT increase from last month. IKAR estimates the Russian wheat crop at 84.5 MMT, up 0.5 MMT from the pervious projection. 

Analysts estimate the US wheat production total to be tallied at 1.922 billion bushels in Tuesday’s Crop Production report, which would be down 7 mbu from last month.

Sep 25 CBOT Wheat  closed at $5.18 1/4, up 9 3/4 cents, currently unch

Dec 25 CBOT Wheat  closed at $5.39, up 9 3/4 cents, currently up 1/4 cent

Sep 25 KCBT Wheat  closed at $5.21 1/2, up 10 cents, currently down 1 1/4 cents

Dec 25 KCBT Wheat  closed at $5.41 3/4, up 9 3/4 cents, currently down 3/4 cent

Sep 25 MGEX Wheat  closed at $5.74, up 5 cents, currently up 1 1/2 cents

Dec 25 MGEX Wheat  closed at $5.95, up 2 3/4 cents, currently up 1 3/4 cent