December wheat traded 2 1/2 cents lower overnight. Weaker crude oil and stock markets overnight pressured.

Wheat started the day higher yesterday and struggled to maintain its gains into early afternoon. A late selloff in crude oil and weakness in stocks appeared to bring selling into wheat and the soybean complex according to traders, and wheat finished lower after making new lows for the session. Funds were light to moderate sellers late in the session, and floor traders also report that spreaders took profits on long wheat/short corn positions with wheat losing to corn to end the day. Export inspections were out yesterday, and the wheat total was 22 million bushels. The cumulative total stands at 48.0% of the projected total, continuing to outpace the 5-year average of 37.9%. Inspections need to average just 15.6 million bushels each week to reach the USDA projection. Basis levels had a firm tone yesterday at the Gulf amid fair demand based on active tenders and sharply lower ocean freight rates. France released its latest 2008/09 grain production numbers yesterday. Soft wheat was pegged at 36.9 million tonnes, down 200,000 tonnes from last month's estimate. Weather in Australia is expected to be dry over the next several days stressing the crop. The weekly US Winter Wheat Planting report showed 73% complete compared to 59% last week and 69% last year. The 10 year average for this time of year is 70%.

Rains are expected today across most of the Plains south of central South Dakota along with areas north of a line running from near Cleveland to St. Louis. This should be beneficial to winter wheat crop development. Jordan is tendering for another 100,000 tonnes of hard wheat. Iran is in the market for 60,000 tonnes of wheat from Australian origins. Mauritius is tendering to buy 47,000 tonnes of wheat flour from any origin.