Corn and soybeans futures at Chicago lead wheat lower overnight. The USDA acreage expectations for the row crops this year was a little higher than the trade had been expecting to see. This weighed on wheat which was still a sell after the Tuesday rally out of thin air. The rally on Tuesday pushed wheat to overbought. It’s not common lately to see such a technical correction in such a short amount of time but Tuesday completed the task of taking wheat from oversold to overbought very quickly. This has left wheat open to technical weakness which is triggering these small daily losses. We should start to see the March contract become more neutral as volume falls and the focus turns to May. Technically May looks very similar to March.
The USDA pegged all wheat acres in the States at 45 million, just a smidge lower than last year and the lowest area in over 100 years. Continued wet weather across the Upper Midwest and Northern Plains in the USA could potentially see this area shrink further if rains persist through the spring.

Saudi Arabia hit the market with a 715kt wheat tender overnight. Delivery is set down for April > June 2020. Deliveries will be to all ports with about 12 vessels to carry. The purchase will bolster domestic supplies and keep the strategic reserves in check. We should see results out over the weekend. In their last tender S.Arabia picked up 605kt generally from EU suppliers. Interesting to note the recent purchase of 200,000ha of WA cropping country by Saudi Arabia, complete with 40khd of Merino’s.