Texas Daily Ag Market News Summary 4/30/15

Posted 9 years 64 days ago by

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

Texas feeder cattle auctions quoted prices mostly steady, with instances of prices $5 lower to $5 higher. Feeder cattle futures were higher, settling at $216.53 per hundredweight (cwt), $0.55 above the previous day’s closing price. The Texas fed cattle cash trade remained inactive on Tuesday. Wholesale boxed beef values were mixed, with Choice grade gaining $0.83 and Select falling $1.92, settling at $258.55 per cwt and $246.06 per cwt, respectively. Estimated cattle harvest through Wednesday totaled 335,000 head, up 5K from last week, but down 19K from a year ago. Year-to-date harvest is down 5.4%. Fed cattle futures were $0.20 lower than the previous day’s prices.

Cotton cash prices closed on par with the previous day’s prices. Futures prices were 0.70 cents higher, settling at 67.32 cents per pound.

Corn and grain sorghum prices were higher, with corn cash and futures prices settling five and three cents higher, respectively, and closing at $3.91 per bushel and $3.64 per bushel, respectively. Grain sorghum prices gained $0.05. Soybeans closed $0.11 higher, settling at $9.89 per bushel as U.S. exports perform well this week.

Wheat cash and futures prices were $0.06 higher and $0.04 higher, respectively, settling at $4.63 per bushel and $5.01 per bushel, respectively. Futures prices continued Tuesday’s upward motion as the dollar weakened.

This week’s U.S. Drought Monitor for Texas showed a slight improvement in drought conditions for the state, with just over 41.1% of Texas still in some stage of drought intensity, down 3.4 percentage points from last week. Additionally, almost 15.9% of the state remains in severe, extreme, or exceptional drought, down 6.1 percentage points from last week and over eight percentage points from three months ago. On the national level, drought conditions improved, with almost 53.25% of the U.S. experiencing abnormal dryness or some degree of drought, down 0.13 percentage points from last week.

Stock markets were lower as reports indicated a slowdown of economic output in the first quarter of this year. Crude oil prices were $1.520 higher, settling at $58.58 per barrel. U.S. crude inventories grew less than predicted, driving prices to new 2015 highs.

Daily Market Summary Data for 4/30/2015

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