Harvest pressure versus technical support
Market Line June 22, 2009 Wheat futures were lower again Friday and as one market analyst put it, it is a tug of war between harvest pressure on wheat and technical support. The hard red winter wheat harvest moved into Kansas late last week. Soft red winter wheat is also being harvested but Joe Victor of Allendale Incorporated points out, that while Chicago soft red futures have been falling, the cash basis at the Gulf has been going up. Victor: “And essentially what it is telling us is Gulf markets are scrambling for fresh new crop supplies that have good milling quality to it.” Soft red wheat has seen scab and vomitoxin issues. There is more concern about Canada’s wheat crop, which could see more than the 18 percent reduction in production the Canadian Wheat Board was forecasting a week ago. On Friday Chicago September wheat was down 4 ¾ cents at 5-84 ½. September corn down 4 ½ at 4-07 ¼. Portland soft white wheat and club wheat steady to two cents lower at mostly 5-80 with some club bids to 6-83. August new crop soft white 5-85 to 5-90. HRW 11.5 % protein mixed at 6-51. DNS 14% protein lower at 7-81. No Portland barley bids. USDA reported the cattle feedlot inventory as of June 1st down four percent from a year ago with May placements down 14 percent and marketings last month were down nine percent. Ahead of the report cattle futures closed higher as traders anticipated reduced placements in the report. August live cattle up 42 cents at 82-12. August feeders up 30 at 98-10. August Class III milk down seven cents at 10-55. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Market Line on the Northwest Ag Information Network. Now this.
