Cattle On Roller Coaster Ride

This is Matt Rice with the Market Line Report for Feb 23rd. There seems to be a roller coaster effect in the livestock market, cattle trading higher in the morning session and trending lower towards the end of the session. Jack Scoville, vice president of price futures group goes over the details from the floor of the CME in Chicago.

Scoville "Hi, cattle and hog market have had a fairly wild session today. Cattle market trading higher in the early part of the session, and has really come off those highs. In fact, feeder cattle traded lower of the course of the day. Some real disputes in the market, with cash trades going on in the Northern Plains. Nothing from Kansas to the south late last week, and ideas are that trading could be rather light as we move ahead. That's really effected the feeder cattle market, as has the slight rally in the corn market here."

Chicago March Wheat ended the day dn 3 ¼, at 458. March corn ended the day up 2, at 367 ¾. Portland prices for soft white wheat of 10 ½ % protein for March were dn 1 ½, ranging from 5-88 ½ to 5-98 ½. Hard Red Winter wheat with 11 ½ % protein, prices for Feb were dn 3 ¼, ranging from 5-43 ¾ to 5-53 ¾. DNS wheat with 14 % protein, prices for Feb were dn 10 ½, ranging from 6-02 ¾ to 6-12 ¾. Feb Live Cattle closed the day up 65 cents, at 136.02 ½. March Feeder cattle were dn 5 cents, at 155.82 ½. March class III milk was dn 16 cents, at 13-69.