By: NATHAN STUEDLE
GRAINS:
March corn closed up 2 1/4 cents and May corn was up 2 cents. March soybeans closed up 3 3/4 cents and May soybeans were up 3 cents. March KC wheat closed up 2 3/4 cents, March Chicago wheat was up 2 cents, March Minneapolis wheat was up 1/2 cents.
Corn, soybean, and wheat futures were all higher Wednesday, with speculators and long-side hedgers likely both seeing opportunity to lock in purchases following the early week, post-USDA price drop. However, upside momentum remained very limited as trading volumes eased following Monday's report day spike. Outside markets Wednesday were supportive as well, as we continue to see a rush to outside commodities this week, such as gold and silver, which have moved once again to new records. Equity markets are softer through the middle of the week on a flow of money from stocks (specifically the tech sector) into commodities. The energy market was firm early in Wednesday's trade, with crude oil futures hitting two and a half month highs on geopolitical risk, specifically ongoing turmoil in Iran, although prices eventually reversed lower likely on profit-taking as well as larger week-on-week crude inventories in the weekly EIA Petroleum Status report.
LIVESTOCK:
The live cattle complex traded lower into Wednesday's closing bell as traders are confident that they do not possess enough support to push the contracts any higher. On Tuesday, the market was charged with bullishness, but today, traders seem to look at the markets a tick more level-headed, and while they believe that the bullish sentiment is justified, they also know that they need to see immediate fundamental support before they can confidently push the contracts higher in the near term. Still no cash cattle trade has developed. Boxed beef prices are higher: choice up $1.34 ($359.33) and select up $0.33 ($357.51) with a movement of 78 loads (52.90 loads of choice, 5.14 loads of select, 12.17 loads of trim and 8.20 loads of ground beef).
And once again, in alignment with the direction of the live cattle complex, the feeder cattle contracts also traded lower Wednesday. Until the live cattle complex trades higher, the feeder cattle complex will likely continue to trade in a cautious, lower manner.
Traders continue to push the lean hog complex higher, with not a lot of fundamental support behind their ambitions. Both cash prices and pork cutout values have been lax this week, but even so, traders continue to aggressively push the contracts.