Wheat retreats

US wheat futures retreated nearly 2 percent on Thursday on forecasts for warmer weather in Europe's wheat belt following bitter cold that threatened developing crops and rallied prices to multimonth peaks. Corn and soyabeans were firm on strong US cash markets and continued brisk export sales of US corn.
"Corn was supported by the export sales number. It was higher than expected and China sneaked in some new-crop corn and whenever that happens it gets attention," said Jerrod Kitt, analyst for The Linn Group. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its weekly export sales report on Thursday said 974,900 tonnes of US corn were sold for export last week, above estimates for 700,000 to 950,000 tonnes.
The sales data included a 50,000-tonne sale of US corn to China for the new marketing year (2012-13) that will begin this September. "There is still a lot of trade chatter that China is accessing beans from the United States rather than South America. South America's bean basis has been strong, so that could shift business to the US," Kitt said.
CBOT March wheat was down 11-1/2 cents at $6.62-3/4 per bushel, March corn was up 1 cent at $6.43 and March soyabeans were up 1-3/4 cents at $12.17 per bushel. Declines in wheat were slowed by the potential for Russia to announce export curbs. "I think everyone is getting ready for the announcement tomorrow about Russia's export plans," said Rich Nelson, analyst for Allendale Inc.
Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov will make an announcement on Friday on how much grain the country can export in the 2011-12 season before imposing a possible export duty, a government source told Reuters on Thursday. US wheat had soared to a 4-1/2 month high the previous session and Paris Euronext benchmark March wheat had rallied to a seven-month peak in a volatile weather market.
There were outlooks for moderating weather in Europe this month which should provide some relief to the wheat crop from the blast of bitter cold weather this week. The state forecaster in Moscow said temperatures in European Russia will be just 1 to 2 degrees below multi-year averages in February offering respite for crops in Russia's south which have been put at risk by unusually cold weather.