Texas Daily Ag Market News Summary 7/21/15

Posted 9 years 130 days ago by

Feeder cattle steady to $5 lower, with instances of $8 lower; futures higher.
Fed cattle cash trade lower; formula trades lower; futures higher; beef prices higher.
Cotton mixed.
Grains and soybeans lower.
Crude oil lower; natural gas lower.
Stock markets slightly higher.

Texas feeder cattle auctions quoted prices steady to $5 lower, with instances of $8 lower. Feeder cattle futures settled $1.13 higher to close at $216.33 per hundredweight (cwt). The Texas fed cattle cash market reported a price of $146.00 per cwt. Wholesale boxed beef values were higher, with Choice Grade settling at $233.83 per cwt and Select Grade at $230.22 per cwt. Estimated cattle harvest for the week totaled 110,000 head, up 4,000 from last week’s total and down 4,000 from last year. Year-to-date harvest is down 3.5%. Fed cattle futures were $0.10 higher, closing at $146.75 per cwt.

Cotton prices were mixed, with cash prices remaining at 61.13 cents per pound and futures down 0.02 cents, settling at 65.85 cents per pound. For the reporting period of July 13 - July 19, the USDA NASS Texas field office indicated that that 68 percent of cotton acreage was in the squaring stage. This is up 17 percentage points from the previous week, but down 10 percentage points from last year.

Corn and grain sorghum prices were lower, with corn cash and futures prices both losing $0.15, settling at $4.30 per bushel and $4.05 per bushel, respectively. Grain sorghum cash prices lost $0.27 to close at $7.41 per cwt. Soybean futures prices were $0.07 lower, closing at $10.08 per bushel. Seventy-five percent of the Texas corn crop is in the silking stage, with 63% of corn acreage in Good to Excellent condition.

Wheat cash prices lost $0.22 to settle at $4.70 per bushel and futures prices lost $0.21 to settle at $5.26 per bushel. Ninety-seven percent of the Texas wheat crop has been harvested, with 47% of wheat acreage in Good to Excellent condition.

Stock markets closed slightly higher yesterday, with the NASDAQ Composite Index closing at another record high for the third day in a row. Crude oil prices dropped $0.74 to close at $50.15 per barrel, responding to continuing concerns about the global crude glut.

From the Weekly Recap:

AUSTIN – (July 20, 2015) For the week ending July 18, 2015, Texas auctions quoted feeder cattle prices mostly steady, with instances of sales ranging from $1 to $8 lower per hundredweight (cwt). Texas weekly direct feeder cattle sales were mostly $1 to $4 lower with some steady sales early in the week. Wholesale beef values were lower, with Choice Grade losing $3.68 to close at $233.30 per cwt and Select Grade losing $4.60 to close at $229.39 per cwt. Net export sales for July 3 –9 were down 37 percent from the previous week. Export shipments of 11,800 metric tons (MT) were up four percent from the previous week. Shipments primarily went to Japan, Canada and South Korea.

Cotton cash prices were 0.25 cents higher than the previous week and closed at 61.13 cents per pound. October futures prices settled at 65.87 cents per pound, 0.36 cents higher than last week. For the reporting period of July 6 – 12, the USDA NASS Texas field office indicated that cotton planting was complete. Fifty-one percent of cotton acreage is in the squaring stage, up 15 percentage points from the previous week but down five percentage points from last year. Net export cotton sales were up 69 percent from the previous week’s sales. Shipments were down 36 percent from the previous week and 35 percent from the average.

Wheat cash prices lost $0.26 to settle at $4.92 per bushel. Futures prices lost $0.11 to settle at $5.47 per bushel. The USDA NASS Texas field office reported that 95 percent of the Texas wheat crop has been harvested, with 47 percent of wheat acreage in good to excellent condition. Net export sales for wheat were 291,500 MT, with increases reported for the Philippines, Japan and Jamaica.

Texas corn prices were lower, with cash prices down to $4.45 per bushel and futures prices up to $4.20 per bushel. The USDA NASS Texas field office reported 74 percent of the Texas corn crop is in the silking stage, with 63 percent of corn acreage in good to excellent condition. Corn export sales were down 38 percent from the previous week and 41 percent from the prior four-week average. Export shipments were 17 percent higher than the previous week and nine percent higher than the average.This week’s U.S. Drought Monitor for Texas showed only 2.84 percent of Texas still in some stage of drought intensity. Additionally, none of the state remains in moderate, severe, extreme or exceptional drought. On the national level, drought conditions improved slightly, with approximately 35 percent of the U.S. experiencing abnormal dryness or some degree of drought, down just slightly from last week.

Daily Market Summary Data for 7/21/2015

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