Russia sold 120kt of wheat to Egypt overnight. 60kt was booked at US$249.45 delivered and another 60kt was booked at US$252.50 delivered. Some say Egypt came in as a buyer due to the risk of port lockdowns as the coronavirus becomes more widespread. This appears likely as Egypt are currently harvesting their own wheat crop and to announce they plan to purchase around 800kt in the short term is probably counter-productive to negotiations.
With the risk of export ports being closed and the knowledge that both Russia and Ukraine are looking to restrict wheat exports a little prior to their own crops being harvested it has resulted in prices, on the cash market at least, firming a little.

In the USA wheat futures actually closed lower. Spill over weakness from the row crops appeared to hurt wheat futures of all three US grades. The market overlooked the fact that minimum temperatures in NW Kansas fell as low as -9C and further east around Topeka Kansas the mercury also slipped as low as -2C. The cold wasn’t restricted to Kansas either, Nebraska, Iowa and the Dakotas were all around 6C – 7C below average. Pictures on social media showing ice crystals on developing wheat heads in central Kansas should be raising alarm bells to the punters but who can stand in the way of a “technical correction”.
The cold weather is expected to persist across Kansas through to about Friday and then conditions will warm considerably into next week. Interesting times.