01/19/05 Egypt takes some white wheat

01/19/05 Egypt takes some white wheat

Marketline January 19, 2005 Wheat futures closed mostly lower Tuesday. Wheat tried a corrective bounce but failed after soybeans began to fall and corn again set a contract low. . Traders were disappointed that the U.S. didn't get a lot of the latest Egyptian tender, though Egypt did buy 60-thousand metric tons of U.S. soft white wheat, but most of the sale went to France and Argentina. Gary Hofer of Gary Hofer Commodities, says the bias for the general wheat trend is negative, if there is a bias. Hofer: "The only idea on the burner for this week is to sell 300-thousand tons of wheat to Iraq, apparently in the works for consummation in the next week or so. There are no new big statistics coming out for the remainder of this week. The funds were mild sellers Tuesday and are still holding rather large net short positions. There is noting pushing that group to move right now, so it appears we will all have to wait for something new to come along and move the market." On Tuesday Chicago March wheat was down a penny at 2-96 ½.. March corn down 1 1/4 at 1-96. Portland cash white wheat steady to three cents higher at mostly 3-85. Club wheat 3-91. PNW HRW 11.5 percent protein 4-40. Dark northern spring 14% protein mixed at 5-20. Export barley 96 dollars a ton. No trend for Plains fed cattle Tuesday but analysts say a few sales suggest steady money this week. Boxed beef was sharply higher on moderate demand. Cattle futures were mostly higher but February live cattle were down seven cents at 91-25. March feeders up 50 at 102-90. February Class III milk up four cents at 15-46. After the close USDA reported milk production in the major states was up one percent in December over December of 2003. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Marketline on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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