Texas Daily Ag Market Summary 3/5/15

Posted 9 years 268 days ago by

· Feeder cattle mostly steady; futures higher.
· Fed cattle cash trade inactive; formula trades lower; futures higher; beef prices mixed.
· Cotton was steady to higher.
· Grains and soybeans mostly lower, rough rice higher.
· Crude oil higher; natural gas higher.
· Stock markets mostly lower.

Texas feeder cattle auctions quoted prices mostly steady with some locations unable to establish trends due to last week’s cancelled auctions. Feeder cattle futures were higher finding support in lower grain prices. The Texas fed cattle cash trade remained inactive. Wholesale boxed beef values were mixed with Choice grade falling $1.03 per hundredweight (cwt) to $248.58 and Select grade rising $1.95 per cwt to $247.23. Estimated cattle harvest through Wednesday totaled 324,000 head, up 15K from last week, but down 8K from a year ago. Year-to-date harvest is down 2.4%. Fed cattle futures were higher as traders more than made up for the previous day’s losses.

Cotton cash and futures prices were steady to higher with cash closing consistently with the previous day’s prices and futures closing higher at 63.61 cents per pound. The weekly export total for running bales came in at 78,000, bringing the marketing-year total to 93% of the USDA projection.

Corn and grain sorghum prices were mostly lower with corn futures closing at the same level as the previous day. The soybean market continues to feel the impact of decreased buying interest from the U.S. on delay potential as the impact of Brazil’s trucker strike continues to wane.

Wheat prices were seven cents lower in both the cash and futures markets as favorable growing conditions in South America signal large row-crop harvests in the future.

This week’s U.S. Drought Monitor for Texas showed a slight improvement in drought conditions for the state with a little over 61% of the state still in some stage of drought intensity, down 0.48 percentage points from last week. Almost 27% of the state remains in severe, extreme, or exceptional drought, down slightly from last week and up 5 percentage points from three months ago. On the national level, drought conditions continued to improve slightly with about 52.5% of the U.S. experiencing abnormal dryness or some degree of drought, down 1.6 percentage points from last week.

Stock markets were mostly lower as investors reacted to the recent highs. The eagerly anticipated February jobs report is scheduled to be released tomorrow, bringing the potential for the Federal Reserve to raise short-term interest rates. Crude oil futures were $1.01 per barrel higher than yesterday, but still $51.05 lower than prices last year.

Daily Market Summary Data for 3/5/2015

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