March wheat opened 13 1/2 cents lower on the day at 533 and established an early range of 520 to 536 1/4. A general sell-off in commodities prior to the open extended losses in wheat compared to losses seen in the overnight session. Traders said that the strength in the dollar continues to weigh on wheat despite this week's better than expected export sales. Wheat sales continue to pick up for all origins with Egypt buying 30,000 tonnes of Russian wheat this morning after a tender released after the close. Western Australia is drier with only scattered rain forecast there in coming days. The eastern wheat belt is a different story, however with showers on and off in northern areas of the eastern wheat belt into Saturday. In the SE, showers with locally heavy thunderstorms have fallen within the past 24 hours. In Australia as a whole, this is further slowing harvest progress and could result in minor production losses. Net weekly export sales for wheat came in at 511,000 tonnes, all for the current marketing year. This was above trade expectations. Sales were strong again this week for soft red wheat at 132,800 tonnes compared to 161,600 for hard red winter. Spring wheat sales were also strong. As of November 13, cumulative sales stand at 73.4% of the USDA forecast for 2008/2009 versus a 5 year average of 64.7%. Sales need to average 255,000 tonnes each week to reach the USDA forecast.