In this weekly Commodities Watch column, John T. Barone, president and commodities analyst for Market Vision Inc., offers a snapshot of the state of commodities for restaurants.
Grain prices rose on Friday after the USDA projected smaller-than-expected domestic supplies.
It was a very mixed bag for corn, where an increase in corn yield, higher planted acreage and lower exports were more than offset by reduced harvested acres and an unexpected jump in domestic feed usage. The result was a 7.5-percent drop in ending stocks to 8.03 billion bushels, a 16-year low.
The USDA left its 2012-2013 corn forecast unchanged at $7.40 per bushel. Corn futures, which had dropped to a low of $6.80 on Jan. 4, closed at $7.08 on Friday. The wheat news was also disappointing, sending wheat futures from $7.44 to $7.54 on Friday.
While the USDA increased projected 2013 production estimates for all proteins it still raised price forecasts for cattle ($129.00 to $129.50/cwt) and broilers ($91 to $93) while lowering its 2013 estimate for hogs from $65 to $63/cwt.
Contact John T. Barone at [email protected].