11/01/05 Funds reduce hard red wheat positions

Marketline November 1, 2005 Wheat futures were lower Monday but this time it was the hard red wheat exchanges Kansas City and Minneapolis which led the way down. Market observers said it was month end liquidation of long positions. Some see a continued unwinding in the long hard red wheat versus Chicago soft red spread. Egypt purchased some wheat over the weekend from Australia plus 60-thousand tons of U.S. soft white. Joe Victor of Allendale says the weekly wheat export inspections report was neutral; Victor: "Interesting enough the 21.388 million bushels were more than enough to keep the amount of wheat needed on a per week basis to meet USDA's target of one billion bushels in export sales in the 2005-2006 market year scaling down. So that is a positive development." On Monday December Chicago wheat was down 3/4 of a cent at 3-17. December corn down 3/4 at 1-96 1/4. Portland cash white wheat steady to three cents lower at mostly 3-56. Club wheat 4-01. PNW HRW 11.5 percent protein 4-61. Dark northern spring 14% protein 5-21. Export barley 105 dollars a ton. Live cattle futures hit some contract highs before profit taking set in and contracts closed lower. Feeder contracts were higher supported by lower corn. Cattle were also supported by that panel of the Japanese Food Safety Commission approving a report on the safety of U.S. beef. Dec live cattle down 38 cents at 90-93. Jan feeders up 35 at 113-88. Dec Class III milk down a dime at 13-36. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Marketline on the Northwest Ag Information Network.