USDA reports are starting to seep out into the real world. Weekly US wheat sales for the week ending December 20th were made public overnight, yes that’s right, Dec 20th, it’s been that long. The total was good at 526.3kt but there are a few weeks to cover before anyone gets too excited and starts to nod in confirmation that the US is indeed meeting their required export sales pace.

Turkey picked up 292.5kt of 13.5% milling wheat in an overnight tender. The tender is difficult to compare as it consisted of around 40 x 7,500 tonne shipments to various ports around the country.
The price averaged out at just over US$265 / tonne. The is roughly equivalent to about AUD$285 at the port here in Australia. Currently WA APW wheat is offered off the west coast for about US$290 FOB, this would be about AUD$83 more than the tender value. It would also indicate WA wheat to eastern Australian ports will come in somewhere around AUD$445 – $455 FOT Newcastle for APW. ASW is currently coming around about a $12 discount to APW, so FOT Newcastle is roughly AUD$433.

US markets are getting direction from the cold snap, delayed USDA reports and technical trade at Chicago. A town called Cotton in Minnesota registered the coldest temperature so far, at -56F or about -49C. Wheat futures were caught up in technical selling across a wide range of US commodities, including corn and soybeans. US weekly export loading of wheat once again fell short of the USDA target.