Beef Demand Down

This is Matt Rice with the Market Line Report for April 19th. Cattle markets surging lower as beef demand drops, with average kills this week up 50-70k from last year, the grocery stores are being forced to lower prices on the shelves. Jack Scoville goes into more details from the floor of the CME in Chicago.

Scoville "Hi, it's been a wild day in the cattle market, with both live and feeder cattle trading limit down. The cattle market really took it on the head today, limit down in both feeder cattle and live cattle. There should be expanded limits as we go into the balance of the week."

Chicago May Wheat climbing back into the saddle up 13, at 473 ¾. May corn ended the day up 2 ½, at 381 ¼. Portland prices for soft white wheat of 10 ½ % protein for April were up 8- 11 ¾, ranging from 5-18 to 5-37 ¾. Hard Red Winter wheat with 11 ½ % protein, prices for April saw big gains on the day, up 15-7, ranging from 5-49 ¾ to 5-54 ¾. DNS wheat with 14 % protein, prices for April were mixed, dn ¾ & up 4 ¼, ranging from 6-17 ¾ to 6-37 ¾. April Live Cattle dropped $3, 128.47 ½. April Feeder cattle slipping further into the red after Mondays market came to a close, dn $4.50, at $1.57 ½. April class III milk was unch, at 13-72.