09/14/06 Wheat, cattle take downward turns

Wheat futures ended lower on Wednesday. Futures opened a couple cents higher on news that Egypt had purchased 120,000 metric tons of U.S. wheat, but ran into late liquidation to close lower. Chicago December wheat fell 5 cents to close at $3.97 1/2. Kansas City December was 4 cents lower while Minneapolis was down 4 3/4 cents. So what's going on? We asked AgriSource's Bill Mendenhall for his take on wheat futures. MENDENHALL "This is the time of year where everybody scratches their head and says shall I sell this stuff now because look at this market it just keeps creeping down on me. I'm a guy who suggested you just be really patient." On Wednesday December corn was unchanged at 2.37 ¾. Portland cash white unchanged at 4.18 Club White mixed, mostly 4.53. Pacific Northwest HRW 11.5 percent protein mostly 5.23, down .02. Dark Northern Spring 14 percent protein, mostly 5.21, down .ll to .17. Cattle futures plunged lower Wednesday amid heavy commodity fund long liquidation. The market is looking for cash markets to soften this week, which contributed to the selling pressure. October live cattle down 1.77 at $90.32. December fell 1.42 to close at $90.45. October feeders down 1.30 at 116.75 October Class III milk at Chicago up a dime at 12.35.