US wheat retreats, better weather seen for Europe

03 Feb 2012
CHICAGO, Feb 2 (Reuters) - U.S. 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 soybeans were firm on strong U.S. cash markets and continued brisk export sales of U.S. 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 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its weekly export sales report on Thursday said 974,900 tonnes of U.S. 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 U.S. corn to China for the new marketing year (2012-13) that will begin this September.

http://www.sharenet.co.za/news/US_wheat_retreats_better_weather_seen_for_Europe/a70c7f121ca7bbc078e1de8d0109a5a3