Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures closed lower on Wednesday on technical selling and spillover weakness from global equity markets tied to fears that the coronavirus could trigger a global recession, traders said.

CBOT May soft red winter wheat settled down 9-1/2 cents at $5.12-3/4 per bushel.

K.C. May hard red winter wheat ended down 9-1/4 cents at $4.35-1/2 a bushel and MGEX May spring wheat fell 6-3/4 cents at $5.12.

Ahead of Thursday's US Department of Agriculture export sales report, analyst expected the government to report export sales of US wheat in the week ended March 5 at 225,000 to 675,000 tonnes.

Farm office FranceAgriMer raised its forecast for French soft wheat exports outside the European Union for the sixth month in a row, saying it saw no immediate impact from a coronavirus outbreak on brisk demand for French supplies.

The office projected 2019/20 French wheat exports at 12.7 million tonnes, up from 12.6 million tonnes last month.