US Wheat Market Slips Amid Declines in Contracts and Crop Progress

The US wheat market is showing weakness on Tuesday morning, with losses ranging from 3 to 9 cents. This comes after Monday's losses of 11 to 18 cents for Chicago SRW contracts and 10 to 16 1/4 cent losses for KC HRW futures.

Open interest was down 866 contracts on Monday, but up 4,351 contracts on the same day in terms of KC HRW futures. MPLS spring wheat also slipped by 1 ½ to 9 ¼ cents lower.

The weekly NASS Crop Progress data showed that 81% of the US winter wheat crop had been harvested by Sunday, 2% ahead of normal. However, the spring wheat crop was only 92% headed and 1% behind its 5-year average pace, with 2% already harvested.

The Brugler500 index also saw a decline of 3 points to 342. Meanwhile, Monday's Export Inspections report showed wheat shipments of 394,785 MT (14.51 mbu) in the week of 7/23, up 71.82% from the previous week and 36.01% above the same week last year.

However, SovEcon estimates a decline in Russian wheat exports to 44.6 MMT, down 1.9 MMT from its previous number. The current marketing year total is now 2.543 MMT (93.4 mbu) of shipments, which is 23.21% below the same period last year.