Domestic Wool Trade
Quiet, Aussies Mixed

GREELEY, Colo. —(USDA)— Domestic wool trading was at a standstill last week as demand became very narrow. One major interest is not purchasing wool until fall and others are lowering prices weekly to remain competitive in the world price scheme. Both live and clean prices moved lower again, but only limited sales were reported, making trends difficult to analyze.

In Territory trading: North Dakota — Page pool, 50,000 pounds, whiteface 58-60's, few 62's 60 cents, crossbred and blackface 40 cents; Missouri — Slope pool, 30,000 pounds original bag, whiteface, 58-62's brought 60 cents, 56-58's 58 cents, medium whiteface and crossbred 50-54's 47 cents, blackface 50-54's 41 cents. Montana — 7500 pounds classed and skirted, 24.5 micron, staple, high yielding $1.20 clean net producer. Washington — Pugent Sound pool, 20,000 pounds whiteface 54-58's 42 cents, blackface and crossbreds 34 cents, lamb wool 28 cents and black wool at 15 cents; Idaho — Malhuer-Parna pool, 62,000 pounds, bellies out and untied, whiteface 56-62's 56.9 cents, crossbred and blackface 37.5 cents; Oregon — 100,000 pounds original bag, BI, blackface and crossbred, 2.5-3.5 inches, 41.6 cents; Jackson-Joseph pool, 18,000 pounds, original bag, BI, whiteface 58-62's 52.9 and blackface/crossbred 50-56's 36.3 cents.

In warehouse trading a total of 200,000 pounds sold the past couple of weeks for August through October delivery: 22.5-23.5 micron brought $1.60 delivered, clean, 25-26 micron $1.45. An additional 100,000 pounds was committed to processors for fall delivery with prices to be determined at delivery. The Australian market indicator closed the week one cent lower at 587A cents per kilo clean; 20 micron wool rose three cents while 19 and 28-31 micron was unchanged and 21-27 micron eased 1-4 cents. Clearance was 82 percent on a total offering of 42,531 bales. Futures 21 micron June contract closed up 26 cents at 700 and August was down five cents at 645. A total of 1,134,747 farm bale equivalents remain unsold in Australia.

The New Zealand market indicator fell five cents to 490NZ cents per kilo clean. Clearance was 89 percent on a total offering of 11,982 bales. Strong wool was down three cents at 418. The South African wool market was in recess last week.