12/03/08 Egypt and Iraq pass on U.S. wheat

Market Line December 3, 2008 Wheat futures generally posted small gains Tuesday after trading on both sides of Monday's close. Louise Gartner for the Linn Group at the Chicago Board of Trade says there was negative news on the export front. Gartner: "Egypt come in and bought 120-thousand tons of Russian wheat, a 120-thousand tons of French wheat. Iraq came in for some wheat. They bought 100-thousand tons of Canadian wheat and apparently took another 100-thousand tons of German wheat. So continue to see the Black Sea be a major player here despite some talk that their quality supplies are dwindling quickly. Obviously they are still a player in this market and that is going to keep pressure on this market for quite some time." It looks like the weather will be dry for the rest of this week in the major Australia wheat harvesting areas. On Tuesday Chicago March wheat was up a half cent at 5-28 ½. March corn down a half at 3-48 ¼. Portland soft white wheat any protein was mixed at mostly 5-10. Maximum 10.5 percent protein lower at 5-25. Club wheat mixed at 5-70 with a 15 cent premium for low protein. HRW 11.5 % protein up a penny at 5-95. DNS 14% protein up four cents at 7-77. No Portland barley bids. Cattle futures closed lower again Tuesday despite a better stock market. Traders said the market actually traded fundamentals as there are thoughts of a lower cash fed cattle trade this week. Feb live cattle down 77 cents at 84-95. Jan feeders down 75 at 89-10. Jan Class III milk up 11 cents at 14-36. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Market Line on the Northwest Ag Information Network. Now this.