Wheat futures mixed; cattle drop

Market Line July 9, 2009 Winter wheat futures posted small gains Wednesday while spring wheat contracts at Minneapolis were lower. Terry Linn with the Linn Group at the Chicago Board of Trade cites one reason Chicago contracts were higher.

Linn: “Wheat received a boost from some fresh export news to Egypt.”

That was for a cargo of wheat and was the second purchase of U.S. wheat by Egypt in recent weeks, which has some commentators saying U.S. wheat prices have dropped enough to be competitive for quality wheat on the world market.

A report earlier this week suggested El Nino may not be a problem for Australia this year but yesterday the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said they fully expected this will be an El Nino year. Agency forecasters say it may not be a strong El Nino but it won’t be a mild one either.

Anyway, On Wednesday Chicago September wheat was up 4 ¾ cents at 5-17 ¼. September corn down a ¼ cent at 3-25 ¼. Portland soft white wheat and club wheat up a nickel to down a nickel at mostly 5-55 with some club bids to 6-80. August new crop soft white steady to lower at 5-55 to 5-60. HRW 11.5 % protein two to three cents lower at 5-87. DNS 14% protein down two cents 7-05. No Portland barley bids.

Cattle futures were down Wednesday with traders concerned about a weak economy as indicated by lower crude oil and what were lower stocks during the session. Speculative traders just want out of the market. August live cattle down 85 cents at 83-35. August feeders down a $1 at 101-65. August Class III milk down nine cents at 10-62.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Market Line on the Northwest Ag Information Network.

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