03/09/06 Weather supports wheat; bearish on cattle

Marketline March 9, 2006 While most other commodities were lower Wednesday, wheat futures closed higher. Peter Georgantones of Investment Trading Services in Minnesota says the precipitation in the Plains isn't hitting the driest areas or it is not amounting to much. Georgantones: "Not as much rain through that winter wheat belt as was advertised over the last week. It was real spotty and most of it stayed eastward. When the funds saw that they kept buying plus I think some noon forecasts got a little drier for the rest of the week." Traders get the USDA weekly export sales report this morning. Friday USDA issues updated supply and demand reports. On Wednesday May Chicago wheat was up 3 ½ cents at 3-84 ½. May corn down 2 ¼ at 2-30 ½. Increased country selling added some pressure to Portland cash soft white wheat bids which were one to two cents lower at mostly 3-65. August new crop 3-71 to 3-78. Club wheat 4-05. HRW 11.5 percent protein higher at 4-86. Dark northern spring 14% protein up a nickel at 5-42. No barley bids. Bearish fundamentals took their toll on cattle futures Wednesday with many new contract lows hit during the session. There are concerns about larger cattle supplies, heavy marketing weights, slow beef exports and competition from pork and poultry. April live cattle down 63 cents at 84-15. April feeders down 108 at 105-13. April Class III milk up 30 cents at 11-20. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Marketline on the Northwest Ag Information Network. Now this.