Texas Daily Ag Market News Summary 4/2/15

Posted 9 years 240 days ago by

· Feeder cattle steady to $3 higher; futures higher.

· Fed cattle cash trade inactive; formula trades higher; futures higher; beef prices higher.

· Cotton lower.

· Grains and soybeans mostly higher.

· Crude oil sharply higher; natural gas lower.

· Stock markets lower.

Texas feeder cattle auctions quoted prices steady to $3 lower, with one location reporting instances of sales down to $5 lower. Feeder cattle futures were higher, settling at $218.63 per hundredweight (cwt), $0.50 above the previous day’s closing price. The Texas fed cattle cash trade remained inactive on Tuesday. Wholesale boxed beef values were higher. Estimated cattle harvest through Wednesday totaled 314,000 head, up 3K from last week, but down 28K from a year ago. Year-to-date harvest is down 10.8%. Fed cattle futures were higher, closing with the first gains of the week.

Cotton cash and futures prices were lower, almost completely erasing the prior day’s gains.

Corn and grain sorghum prices were higher, supported by reported declines in ethanol inventories. Soybeans closed higher, settling at $9.90 per bushel, continuing to feel support from this week’s USDA estimates.

Wheat prices were higher, with wheat supplies reported to be 430,000 acres below expected planting area size.

This week’s U.S. Drought Monitor for Texas showed a slight improvement in drought conditions for the state, with about 49.3% of the state still in some stage of drought intensity, down about one and a quarter percentage points from last week. Conversely, almost 25.5% of the state remains in severe, extreme, or exceptional drought, up more than half a percentage point from last week and almost 0.30 percentage points from three months ago. On the national level, drought conditions improved slightly, with about 59% of the U.S. experiencing abnormal dryness or some degree of drought, up 3.17 percentage points from last week.

Stock markets were lower as reports indicated weaknesses in the economy. Crude oil prices were $2.490 higher, settling at $50.09 per barrel, the highest closing price since Thursday of last week, when prices settled at $51.43 per barrel. Yesterday saw the sharpest crude oil price rise since markets closed $3.48 higher on February 3.

Daily Market Summary Data for 4/2/2015

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