Bounces for wheat and cattle futures

Market Line February 20, 2008 Wheat futures had modest gains Thursday. Some traders said wheat had been oversold. A lower dollar also helped and crude oil was up. Louise Gartner for the Linn Group at the Chicago Board of Trade says warm weather in the southern Plains is raising concerns about winter wheat coming out of dormancy. Gartner: “The weather has been warm and of course it has been very dry and so that is part of the stimulus pushing wheat higher as we start to take into account some weather premiums here.� Chinese state officials say recent rains have reduced drought areas of winter wheat to the amount of land affected by drought in a normal year. Weekly export sales come out this morning, delayed a day by Monday’s holiday. On Thursday Chicago March wheat was up 8 ¾ cents at 5-19 ½. March corn up four at 3-53 ¼. Portland soft white wheat any protein and maximum 10.5 percent 10-20 cents higher at 5-65. August new crop higher at 5-23 to 5-55. All Club wheat at 7-15. HRW 11.5 % protein up 11 cents at 6-06. DNS 14% protein up nine cents at 7-78. No Portland barley bids. Cattle futures saw big gains Thursday partially recovering from two triple digit down days earlier in the week. There was short covering and thoughts the sell off had been overdone. This afternoon is the monthly Cattle on Feed report. April live cattle up 182 at 84-75. March feeders up 160 at 90-62. March Class III milk down 30 cents at 10-42. USDA reports January milk production in the major states was up one percent over January of 2008. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Market Line on the Northwest Ag Information Network. Now this.