06/29/06 Setback in wheat; cattle mixed

Marketline June 29, 2006 Wheat futures closed lower Wednesday testing chart gaps left below the market earlier in the week. Minneapolis contracts faired the best on continuing concerns about the hard red spring wheat crop. Commentaries pointed to positioning ahead of the USDA report Friday, a resumption of harvest in soft red and hard red winter wheat areas that had received some rain and concerns about export demand. India said that most of the 2.2 million tons of wheat it had imported were from Europe, Canada and Argentina. Peter Georgantones of Investment Trading Services in Minnesota says this morning is the USDA weekly export sales report. Georgantones: "They are looking for 300,000 to 500-thousand tons to be sold, somewhere in that range. But I think the market is going to be pretty quiet coming into Friday morning's report." On Wednesday September Chicago wheat was down 6 ½ cents at 3-88. September corn up a half at 2-37. Portland cash white wheat was steady at mostly 3-78. First half August 3-85. Club wheat 3-78. HRW 11.5 percent protein down four cents at 5-54. Dark northern spring 14% protein three to 13 cents lower at mostly 5-97. No Portland barley bids. Live cattle futures were mostly higher Wednesday with feeder contracts mixed. Profit taking and overbought conditions were cited in feeders, with live cattle supported by thoughts of firm beef prices and higher cash cattle this week. There was some spillover pressure from hogs. Aug live cattle up 30 cents at 87-28. Aug feeders down 35 at 117-20. Aug Class III milk unchanged at 11-70. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Marketline on the Northwest Ag Information Network. Now this.