Texas Daily Ag Market News Summary 3/26/15

Posted 9 years 247 days ago by

· Feeder cattle steady to $5 higher; futures higher.
· Fed cattle cash trade inactive; formula trades higher; futures lower; beef prices higher.
· Cotton lower.
· Grains and soybeans mixed.
· Crude oil higher; natural gas lower.
· Stock markets mostly lower.

Texas feeder cattle auctions quoted prices steady to $5 lower, with some locations reporting instances of sales down to $5 lower and up to $10 higher. Feeder cattle futures were higher settling at $217.70 per hundredweight (cwt), $0.28 short of Monday’s monthly high of $217.98 per cwt. The Texas fed cattle cash trade reported sharply lower prices down to $156 per cwt on 56 head. Wholesale boxed beef values were sharply higher. Estimated cattle harvest through Wednesday totaled 311,000 head, down 16K from last week and 43K from a year ago. Year-to-date harvest is down 12.1%. Fed cattle futures were lower as trade volume remained light.

Cotton cash and futures prices were lower as ginning reports indicated a higher-than-anticipated supply.

Corn and grain sorghum prices were higher, with both commodities closing with gains for the fourth-straight session. Soybeans closed lower, settling at $9.79 per bushel as South American crops were reported to be larger than expected.

Wheat prices were lower as traders continue to await USDA’s March Planting Intentions report, scheduled to be released on Tuesday.

This week’s U.S. Drought Monitor for Texas showed an improvement in drought conditions for the state with about 51% of the state still in some stage of drought intensity, down about six percentage points from last week. Almost 25% of the state remains in severe, extreme, or exceptional drought, down more than two percentage points from last week, but up almost two percentage points from three months ago. On the national level, drought conditions worsened slightly with about 56% of the U.S. experiencing abnormal dryness or some degree of drought, up 1.45 percentage points from last week.

Stock markets were mostly lower. The February durable goods report indicated a decline by 1.4% for that month. Crude oil prices were $1.700 higher, settling at $49.21 per barrel, the highest closing price since the ninth of March when prices settled at $50.00 per barrel.

Daily Market Summary Data for 3/26/2015

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