08/21/08 Overseas weather and quality concerns help wheat

Market Line August 21, 2008 It was good gains for wheat futures Wednesday. Funds were good buyers. Persistent drought in Argentina was called a factor. Also, Mark Chiodo of Slipka Trading at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange says traders are thinking about quality problems overseas. Chiodo: "There is some commentary or thought that the poor quality of the Russia Black Sea wheat is chasing a lot of business elsewhere and we are somewhat the beneficiary of that, even though the dollar has rebounded and pressing us off the front of the spectrum from the rest of the suppliers on the world market. Nevertheless we seem to be doing our share. It is all front-end loaded here." Rain delays in western Europe are also causing quality concerns. On Wednesday Chicago September wheat was up 29 ¼ cents at 8-74 ¾. September corn up 10 ½ at 5-75 ¼. Portland soft white wheat were mixed at mostly 8-35. Club wheat 8-45. HRW 11.5 % protein 19-21 cents higher at 9-76. DNS 14% protein 10-35. Barley at the coast 225 dollars a ton. Short covering and speculative buying helped cattle futures close generally higher Wednesday. A Cattle on Feed Report comes out tomorrow. Oct live cattle up 17 cents at 105. Oct feeders up 40 at 113-17. Sept Class III milk up 17 cents at 16-23. The Elanco division of Eli Lilly is buying Monsanto's Posilac, the milk production hormone. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Market Line on the Northwest Ag Information Network. Now this.