03/16/06 Wheat futures lower, cattle mixed

Wheat futures closed lower on Wednesday. The market remained on the defensive pressured by forecasts for weekend rain in the Plains. Analyst Brian Hoopes says the market reacted to news that Iraq had cancelled a previous purchase of US wheat. HOOPES "Egypt bought 100 metric thousand tons of Syrian wheat overnight. South Korea bought 23 thousand metric tons of US wheat. And it looks like Japan did end up buying 17 thousand metric tons of feed wheat and about 220 metric thousand tons of feed barley. Odds are that we've done our technical corrections, were ready to try to move higher here in the markets now." On Wednesday Chicago May wheat was down ¼ at 3.62. May corn down 2 ½ to 2.29 ¼. Portland cash white unchanged at 3.51. Club White mostly 3.92 Pacific Northwest HRW 11.5 percent protein August new crop 4.71 Dark Northern Spring 14 percent protein mostly 5.27 Cattle futures were mixed on the close Wednesday, rebounding from early lows to finish mostly higher. The cattle market continues to struggle under the weight of bearish fundamentals. April cattle were down 10 points at $83.00. June gained 20 points to close at $78.75. April feeders up 1.47 at 104.85 April Class III milk at Chicago unchanged at 11.10. I'm Bill Scott in for Bob Hoff, that's Marketline on the Northwest Ag Information Network. Now this.