09/21/05 hard wheat futures down; Chicago up

09/21/05 hard wheat futures down; Chicago up

Marketline September 21, 2005 Wheat futures were mixed Tuesday but this time Chicago closed slightly higher and the hard red wheat contracts at Kansas City and Minneapolis were lower. Brian Hoops of Midwest Market Solutions in Yankton, South Dakota, says that's because the focus was the unwinding of hard wheat versus soft wheat spreads. Hoops: "I think the fear is that open interest is incredibly large with a record net long position in the Kansas City contract while open interest is also record large while the funds are holding a record short position in Chicago and as we get closer to the end of the month there is going to be more inclination to take some profits on those spreads in particular and reduce the size of the open interest. Also traders who have been selling Chicago wheat have an inclination to buy back some of their short positions." Traders are also watching Hurricane Rita, which unlike Katrina may interrupt hard red winter wheat shipments which move out of Texas ports. On Tuesday December Chicago wheat was up a penny at 3-21 1/4. December corn up a half at 2-06 3/4. Portland cash white wheat steady to two cents higher at mostly 3-48. Club wheat 3-63. PNW HRW 11.5 percent protein lower at 4-42. Dark northern spring 14% protein lower at 4-99. Export barley 105 dollars a ton. Cattle futures were lower Tuesday. The recent jump in wholesale beef prices has traders thinking retailers may scale back on beef purchases. Oct live cattle down 25 cents at 85-83. Oct feeders down 50 at 112-95. Oct Class III milk up six cents at 14-53. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Marketline on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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