01/03/07 Watching for index funds and USDA

Market Line January 3, 2007 Traders return to the pits today after a holiday weekend that was prolonged by Tuesday's Day of Mourning for former President Gerald Ford. Now that the new year is here one question is whether index fund buying will emerge. Brian Hoops of Midwest Market Solutions in Yankton, South Dakota, says the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has decided to make more information about index fund activity available in the Commitment of Traders reports. Hoops: "I think it is going to be a very beneficial aspect for people who follow these reports to see what these index funds are doing and also to separate them out from the commercial entities. They were lumped together with the commercials previously. This will give a better indication of who is in the market and to what extent and specially how that relates to open interest levels." USDA issues several reports January 12th including the first estimate of U.S. winter wheat acreage for the 2007 crop. In the last pit trading session last Friday, Chicago March wheat was down 2 ½ cents at 5-09 ¾. March corn up 1 ¾ at 3-90 ¼. Portland cash soft white wheat was down a penny at 5-02. Club wheat 5-02. HRW 11.5 percent protein down two cents at 5-75. Dark northern spring 14% protein up seven cents at 5-96. Barley at the coast 176-dollars a ton. Cattle futures were mixed last Friday. Feb live cattle down a nickel at 92-50. March feeders up 52 at 98-37. Feb Class III milk unchanged at 13-42. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Marketline on the Northwest Ag Information Network. Now this.