08/21/06 Wheat bounces; cattle on feed neutral

Marketline August 21, 2006 Wheat futures were mostly higher Friday posting a bullish reversal from early weakness. Kansas City was the leader with commercial buying there leading to speculation some export business was being done. There are ideas Brazil may be interested in hard red winter wheat. There was disappointment early in Friday's session on news Egypt had purchased more wheat but it was from Canada with none from the U.S. The Plains have been getting rain and there are forecasts for more. Dryness remains a concern in Argentina and Australia. On Friday September Chicago wheat was up a penny at 3-64 ½. September corn up ¾ at 2-19 ¾. Portland cash soft white wheat steady at mostly 3-97. Club wheat 4-27. HRW 11.5 percent protein seven to 13 cents higher at 5-16. Dark northern spring 14% protein mixed at 5-34. USDA's monthly Cattle on Feed report issued Friday was in line with trade expectations and is not expected to have any significant impact on futures trading today. USDA analyst Shayle Shagum has the numbers. Shagum: "Basically we saw very heavy placements of cattle into feedlots in July. In U.S. feedlots with capacity of a thousand head or more the placements were up 17% from a year ago. Marketings were about two percent higher and we wound up with about 7% cattle on feed on August 1st than we had a year ago." Ahead of the report Friday futures were mixed. Oct live cattle down 118 at 90-88. Oct feeders down 63 at 116-60. Sept Class III milk down a penny at 12-22. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Marketline on the Northwest Ag Information Network. Now this.