March wheat finished 6 cents higher overnight. The dollar was higher.

Wheat opened sharply lower yesterday and moved lower into mid session. Traders said that weak financial markets and a massive sell off in many commodity markets sparked the plunge in wheat with heavy selling by funds adding to the downward pressure. Iraq bought 100,000 tonnes of hard wheat from Canada. Sources yesterday indicated that Iraq may buy up to 300,000 tonnes and that the US is unlikely to get a piece of the business due to the continued price disadvantage that US wheat faces on international markets. The Commitments of traders Report for the week ending 11/25 showed trade by funds as a net wash. Index funds were net sellers of 3,650 contracts while trend-following funds were net buyers of 3,791 to further reduce their net short position to just over 26,000 contracts. Small traders were net buyers of just over 2,700 contracts. This week's export inspections for wheat were 19.808 million bushels. Cumulative inspections stand at 61.2% of the projected total compared to a 5-year average of 50.4%. Inspections need to average 14.6 million bushels each week to reach the USDA projection.

Snow and rain are expected in the central and north central Plains tomorrow with some activity possible down into the Texas Panhandle. This activity should also cover the NW and west central corn and soybean belts. Conditions are then expected to be mostly dry until Monday when a similar system may bring moisture a bit farther east into the north central Midwest. Japan is tendering for 72,000 tonnes of wheat on its latest weekly tender. Jordan is tendering for 100,000 tonnes of optional origin wheat for delivery in March. Bangladesh is tendering for 100,000 tonnes of wheat with a closing date of December 15th.