03/31/05 Trade gets USDA reports today

Marketline March 31, 2005 Wheat futures closed lower Wednesday ahead of the major USDA reports of the spring season. Kansas City and Minneapolis contracts violated recent lows but Chicago held at Monday's low. Vic Lespinnasse of A. G. Edwards at the Chicago Board of Trade says the attention this morning will be on USDA numbers, which will include spring wheat acres. Lespinnasse: "The market will focus almost exclusively on what the USDA has to say. Also we will get weekly export sales but that will be overshadowed by the USDA Planting Intention numbers and the Quarterly Stocks numbers. So, that is what the market will be concentrating on. I'm looking for a bullish report." On Wednesday Chicago May wheat was down a penny at 3-33 ½. May corn down a half at 2-12 ½. Portland cash white wheat steady to two cents higher at mostly 3-94. New crop August white wheat unchanged at 3-93. Club wheat 3-97. PNW HRW 11.5 percent protein lower at 4-17. Dark northern spring 14% protein lower at 4-88. Export barley 101 dollars a ton. At auction this week 400-500 pound steers were 116 at Klamath Falls with seven to eight weight steers at 96. There were some dressed based fed cattle sales in the Plains yesterday five to six dollars higher than last week. Boxed beef was mixed. Cattle futures hit several new high early in Wednesday's session but prices backed off and futures closed lower. May live cattle down 65 cents at 85-17. May feeders down 65 at 104-85. May Class III milk up six cents at 14-93. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Marketline on the Northwest Ag Information Network.