Wheat needs news; USDA Cattle on Feed report today

Market Line August 21, 2009 Wheat futures had small gains Thursday in a choppy session. Weekly export sales were within the range of expectations but well below the weekly level needed to meet USDA projections. Louise Gartner for the Linn Group at the Chicago Board of Trade says the wheat market is kind of directionless right now.

Gartner: “We will have to work our way through the spring wheat harvest. The weather appears conducive for that. We need to mature the crop as we get further north. We are normally half done by now but we are well behind that pace because of late plantings and a cool, wet summer:”

A correction from our Monday report where we stated white wheat export sales were running behind last year. That’s true for sales reported by USDA Market News at Portland, but nationally white wheat sales are ahead of last year at this time at 983 million tons compared to 953 million.

On Thursday Chicago September wheat was up three cents at 4-69. September corn down 1 ½ at 3-18 ½. Portland soft white wheat generally steady at mostly 4-82. Club wheat 6-57. HRW 11.5 % protein two to six cents higher at mostly 5-40. DNS 14% protein steady to up two cents at 6-19. No Portland barley bids.

Cattle futures were mixed Thursday as traders awaited cash fed cattle market sales and the Cattle on Feed report from USDA, which will be out later today.  Short covering and pre-report positioning were features. October live cattle up 15 cents at 88-82. October feeders unchanged at 101-20. September Class III milk up nine cents at 12-90.

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

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