01/19/09 A market and government holiday

Market Line January 19, 2008 Futures exchanges and USDA Market News are closed today for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Friday corn futures were sharply higher with wheat also posting gains. Some dry weather in Argentina has been supportive to the row crops and spilling over to wheat. Louise Gartner for the Linn Group at the Chicago Board of Trade says the dollar was also lower Friday. Gartner: "And it was under pressure throughout most of the session. So that added some tone of support to the grain complex." Bitter cold temperatures in some of the U.S. winter wheat belt was also supportive but most analysts expect little damage was done to winter wheat. On Friday Chicago March wheat was up 9 1/2 cents at 5-78 ¼. March corn up 25 ¾ at 3-91. Portland soft white wheat any protein higher at 5-70. Maximum 10.5 percent protein 5-85. Club wheat 7-20. Maximum 10.5 percent club wheat 7-35. HRW 11.5 % protein up 14 cents at mostly 6-47. DNS 14% protein 6-11 cents higher at 8-18. No Portland barley bids. Live cattle futures closed higher Friday on cash market optimism, short covering and a positive stock market. Feeders were slightly higher getting some underlying technical support. Feb live cattle up 17 cents at 84-52. March feeders up seven at 94-37. Feb Class III milk up three cents at 9-35. Friday USDA reported milk production in the major producing states during December was up 1.5 percent over December of 2007. Both dairy cow numbers and production per cow were higher. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Market Line on the Northwest Ag Information Network. Now this.