Wheat futures fall off four-month high

Wheat futures fell over one percent in American trade away from September 29 highs, even as the dollar index lost ground, following a basket of data from the US, the world's second largest wheat exporter. 

As of 08:39 GMT, wheat futures due on March 15 fell 1.20% to $4.5175 from the opening of $4.5725, while the dollar index shed 0.06% to 89.10 from the opening of 89.16. 

Earlier US data showed private sector jobs rose by 234 thousand in January, beating expectations of 186K, and adding to the 242K new jobs in December, revised from 250K. 

Labor unit costs slowed down to 0.6% as expected from 0.7% in the third quarter, while the Chicago PMI slowed down to 65.7 in January from 67.6 in December, beating expectations of 64.2. 

US pending home sales accelerated to 0.5% m/m in December from 0.3% in November, matching expectations, while falling 1.8% y/y, compared to a 0.6% rise in November, missing expectations of a 1.7% rise. 

The Federal Reserve voted today to hold overnight interest unchanged at the range of 1.25% to 1.50% at the January 30-31 meeting, matching analysts' expectations. 

The US Department of Agriculture recently released its monthly report on wheat inventories, expecting for them to reach 959 million bushels in the marketing year ending May 31, while forecasting the harvesting of 31.3 million acres of winter wheat, with the inventory projection up 29 million bushels from previous forecasts.