December wheat opened 3 1/4 cents higher this morning at 810 and established an early range of 805 1/4 to 816 1/4. Wheat encountered selling pressure after the open along with corn and soybeans. However, sell orders quickly dried up and local and commission house buying took wheat higher into mid session. Chicago wheat lost slightly to KC wheat in the December contracts, but Chicago gained on Minneapolis. The eastern spring wheat growing areas received 1 inch overnight with scattered coverage. More rain is forecast next week. The western spring wheat belt remained dry and forecasts call for hot weather to continue with little in the way of precipitation. Export sales were very strong again in wheat this week with net sales at 610,000 tonnes. Sales of 352,000 metric tonnes are needed each week for the remainder of the year to reach the USDA forecast. Total sales to date stand at 41.2% of the projected total compared to a 5-year average of 27.4%. Sales of soft red wheat were heavy at 225,900 tonnes versus 206,100 tonnes for hard red wheat. Major destinations were Mexico for hard red wheat and Egypt, followed by Mexico again, for soft red wheat.