December Wheat finished down 14 at 790 3/4, 23 3/4 off the high and 14 3/4 up from the low. September Wheat closed down 14 1/4 at 765 3/4. This was 14 3/4 up from the low and 24 1/4 off the high.

The wheat market opened 16 1/4 cents higher in the December contract this morning. A flurry of buying by locals, commission houses and funds took wheat sharply higher through late morning. A brief dip was followed by a rally to new highs on the day prior to the close. KC was also sharply higher although the March contract there trailed the December contract. Minneapolis slightly lagged both Chicago and KC in the December contracts. Tunisia bought 84,000 tonnes of durum wheat and 42,000 tonnes of milling wheat. Japan bought 90,000 tonnes of wheat on its regular weekly tender about as expected. The EU issued licenses this week to export 357,000 tonnes of wheat. The total issued since the beginning of July stands at 1.52 million tonnes. The US agricultural attache in Argentina lowered the unofficial projection of the area planted to wheat there by 12% to 4.9 million hectares, and lowered wheat production from 14.5 to 14.0 million tonnes. This is expected to reduce Argentine wheat exports from the current official estimate of 9.5 million tonnes to just 9.0 million tonnes. This week's export sales in wheat came in above trade expectations once again. Net sales were 682,600 tonnes, all for the current marketing year. Total sales to date stand at 46.4% of the USDA forecast versus a 5 year average of 32.2%. Sales need to average 336,000 tonnes each week to reach the USDA forecast. This week's sales were heavily weighted toward hard red wheat which accounted for 501,900 tonnes of this week's total compared to 91,900 tonnes for soft red. Iran, Nigeria and Mexico were the biggest buyers. Basis levels at the Gulf were up again today taking the nearby basis up 25 to 30 cents on the week on good demand.

September Oats closed down 2 3/4 at 357. This was equal to the low and 3 off the high.