06/28/05 Cattle close higher; wheat down

Marketline June 28, 2005 After an initial lower opening, cattle futures came back and closed higher Monday despite last Friday's confirmation of a second case of BSE in the U.S. The August live cattle contract actually put in a two week high. Wholesale beef prices were also higher. Analysts said cattle futures benefitted from short covering and also lower feed grain prices. Aug live cattle were up 70 cents at 80-58. Aug feeders up 117 at 109-63. Aug Class III milk up six cents at 15-05. There was a sharp drop in wheat futures Monday and Portland cash white wheat bids broke along with the futures. Gary Hofer of Gary Hofer Commodities, explains. Hofer: "The crunch in the PNW wheat price was triggered at least in part by the red wheat futures market that opened unchanged but couldn't hold on as the soybean market went down 50-cents a bushel. Prices for grains had been sustained over the past couple of weeks by hot and dry weather forecasts for corn and soybean country. But over the weekend expectations for beneficial moisture were increased even as there was no interruption at all of the wheat harvest in the Midwest and Plains states. The wheat price charts did not see big trend changes Monday but there is a technical setup for a change from positive to negative." On Monday Chicago September wheat was down 9 3/4 cents at 3-40 ½. September corn down 10 3/4 at 2-31 1/4. Portland cash white wheat six to ten cents lower at mostly 3-82. August new crop lower at 3-76. Club wheat 3-85. PNW HRW 11.5 percent protein lower at 4-02. Dark northern spring 14% protein lower at 5-16. Export barley 100 dollars a ton. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Marketline on the Northwest Ag Information Network.