Texas Daily Ag Market News Summary 3/11/15

Posted 9 years 294 days ago by

· Feeder cattle steady to $6 higher; futures higher.
· Fed cattle cash trade inactive; formula trades higher; futures higher; beef prices mixed.
· Cotton lower.
· Grains and soybeans mixed.
· Crude oil lower; natural gas higher.
· Stock markets lower.

Texas feeder cattle auctions quoted prices steady to $6 higher. Feeder cattle futures were higher, but the market continues to be pressured by demand issues. The Texas fed cattle cash trade remained inactive on Tuesday. Wholesale boxed beef values were mixed with Choice Grade closing $2.20 higher at $249.79 per hundredweight (cwt) and Select Grade closing $0.63 lower at $254.12 per cwt. Estimated cattle harvest to date this week totaled 219,000 head, 1,000 head higher than last week, but down 4,000 from a year ago. Year-to-date harvest is down 1.8%. Fed cattle futures were higher, but concerns remain as to whether the rising value of the dollar will dampen exports.

Cotton prices were lower on Tuesday with cash closing at 1.50 cents lower at 57.38 cents per pound and futures 1.05 lower at 60.87 cents per pound. Yesterday’s losses mark nine straight sessions of cotton prices failing to close higher.

Corn and grain sorghum prices were lower with corn cash prices $0.09 lower than this time last month. USDA partly credits a “longer-than-expected window of competitiveness compared with Brazil and Argentina” for a one-million ton boost in U.S. corn exports. Soybean prices closed $0.08 lower despite USDA’s unchanged projections for South American production.

Wheat prices were higher. The EU remains the world’s top wheat exporter after the U.S. lost the title in 2013/2014.

Stock markets were lower with little news driving trade and continued apprehension over potential Federal Reserve rate increases. Crude oil prices continued to drop to $49.28 per barrel. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Summary of Weekly Petroleum Data for the Week Ending March 6, 2015, “U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) increased by 4.5 million barrels from the previous week. At 448.9 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are at the highest level for this time of year in the last 80 years.”

Daily Market Summary Data for 3/11/2015

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