Texas Daily Ag Market News Summary 8/20/15

Posted 9 years 101 days ago by

Feeder cattle steady, with instances of $8 lower to $10 higher; futures lower.
Fed cattle cash trade inactive on Wednesday; formula trades lower; futures lower; beef prices higher.
Cotton lower.
Grains and soybeans mixed.
Crude oil lower; natural gas higher.
Stock markets lower.

Texas feeder cattle auctions quoted prices mostly steady to $10 higher with instances of $8 lower. Feeder cattle futures closed $0.75 lower at $213.80 per hundredweight (cwt). The Texas fed cattle cash trade was inactive yesterday. Wholesale boxed beef values were higher, with Choice grade gaining $1.70 and Select grade gaining $0.19, settling at $246.78 per cwt and $236.44 per cwt, respectively. Estimated cattle harvest through Wednesday totaled 322,000 head, up 2,000 from last week and down 18,000 from a year ago. Year-to-date harvest is down 5.3%. Fed cattle futures were $1.95 lower than the previous day’s prices.

Cotton cash prices closed 0.50 cents lower, settling at $61.63 cents per pound. Futures prices were 0.57 cents lower, settling at 67.36 cents per pound.

Corn and grain sorghum prices were higher yesterday, with corn cash and futures prices both gaining $0.10, settling at $3.92 per bushel and $3.67 per bushel, respectively. Grain sorghum cash prices gained $0.02 to settle at $6.47 per cwt. Soybean futures prices closed $0.09 lower, settling at $9.04 per bushel.

Wheat cash prices lost $0.02 and futures prices gained $0.20, to settle at $4.17 per bushel and $4.96 per bushel, respectively.

This week’s U.S. Drought Monitor for Texas showed a worsening of drought conditions for the state, with 42.49% of Texas still in some stage of drought intensity. Additionally, none of the state remains in extreme or exceptional drought. On the national level, drought conditions also worsened, with 45.09% of the U.S. experiencing abnormal dryness or some degree of drought, up 1.42 percentage points from last week.

Stock markets closed lower yesterday, led by investors selling shares of energy companies based on the continued decline in oil prices. Crude oil prices dropped $1.82 to close at $40.80 per barrel, responding to an unexpected rise in U.S. crude stockpiles.

Daily Market Summary Data for 8/20/2015

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