Texas Daily Ag Market News Summary 7/07/15

Posted 9 years 144 days ago by

Feeder cattle steady with instances of $4 to $8 lower; futures lower.
Fed cattle cash trade inactive; formula trades lower; futures lower; beef prices lower.
Cotton mixed.
Grains mixed; soybeans lower.
Crude oil lower; natural gas lower.
Stock markets lower.

Texas feeder cattle auctions quoted prices steady with instances of $4 to $8 lower. Feeder cattle futures settled $0.47 lower to close at $216.98 per hundredweight (cwt). The Texas fed cattle cash market was inactive yesterday. Wholesale boxed beef values were lower, with Choice Grade settling at $247.65 per cwt and Select Grade at $243.92 per cwt. Estimated cattle harvest for the week totaled 108,000 head, down 5,000 from last week’s total and down 3,000 from last year. Year-to-date harvest is down 2.7%. Fed cattle futures were $0.73 lower, closing at $150.50 per cwt.

Cotton prices were mixed, with cash prices remaining at 62.88 cents per pound and futures up 0.07 cents, settling at 66.43 cents per pound. For the reporting period of June 29 - July 5, the USDA NASS Texas field office indicated that that cotton planting was nearly complete, with 99 percent of cotton acreage having been planted. This is up two percentage points from the previous week, but down one percentage point from last year.

Corn and grain sorghum prices were mixed, with corn cash prices gaining $0.05 and futures prices losing $0.01, settling at $4.48 per bushel and $4.19 per bushel, respectively. Grain sorghum cash prices gained $0.07 to close at $7.79 per cwt. Soybean futures prices were $0.11 lower, closing at $10.34 per bushel. One hundred percent of the Texas corn crop has emerged, with 63% of corn acreage in Good to Excellent condition.

Wheat cash and futures prices both remained unchanged at $5.38 per bushel and $5.76 per bushel, respectively. Eighty-seven percent of the Texas wheat crop has been harvested, with 47% of wheat acreage in Good to Excellent condition.

Stock markets closed lower yesterday, as voters in Greece rejected creditors’ conditions with a “no” vote in the recent bailout referendum. Crude oil prices dropped $4.40 to close at $52.53 per barrel, in response to a sharp decline in Chinese stock markets and continuing concerns of oversupply.

From the Weekly Recap:

AUSTIN – (July 6, 2015) For the week ending July 4, 2015, Texas auctions quoted feeder cattle prices mostly steady, with instances of sales ranging from $10 lower to $2 higher per hundredweight (cwt). Texas weekly direct feeder cattle sales were mostly $4 to $8 lower. Wholesale beef values were lower, with Choice Grade losing $3 to close at $250.12 per cwt and Select Grade losing $0.10 to close at $248.05 per cwt. Net export sales for June 19-25 were up 90 percent from the previous week. Export shipments were up noticeably from the previous week and 90 percent from the prior four-week average. Shipments primarily went to Japan, Mexico and South Korea.

Cotton cash prices were 0.50 cents lower than the previous week and closed at 62.88 cents per pound. July futures prices settled at 66.36 cents per pound, which is 0.80 cents lower than last week. For the reporting period of June 22-28, the USDA NASS Texas field office indicated that row crops across the state continued to progress. Ninety-seven percent of cotton acreage has been planted, which is up six percentage points from the previous week but down two percentage points from last year. Net export cotton sales were up 33 percent from the previous week’s sales. Shipments were up 23 percent from the previous week but down nine percent from the average.

Wheat cash prices gained $0.26 to settle at $5.12 per bushel. Futures prices gained $0.17 to settle at $5.76 per bushel. The USDA NASS Texas field office reported that 70 percent of the Texas wheat crop has been harvested; that’s up six percentage points from last year. Net export sales for wheat were 363,900 metric tons (MT), with increases reported for Japan, the Philippines and Nigeria.

Texas corn prices were steady to higher, with cash prices up to $4.43 per bushel and futures prices up to $4.20 per bushel. The USDA NASS Texas field office reported 99 percent of the planted Texas corn crop has emerged, which is one percent below this same point last year. One hundred percent of Texas corn acreage has been planted. Corn export sales were up 20 percent from the previous week and 14 percent from the prior four-week average. Export shipments were nine percent lower than the previous week but four percent higher than the average.

This week’s U.S. Drought Monitor for Texas showed no change in drought conditions for the state, with 4.63 percent of Texas still in some stage of drought intensity. Additionally, none of the state remains in severe, extreme or exceptional drought, which is down approximately 25 percentage points from three months ago. On the national level, drought conditions improved slightly, with just over 38 percent of the U.S. experiencing abnormal dryness or some degree of drought.

Daily Market Summary Data for 7/07/2015

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