By: NATHAN STUEDLE
GRAINS:
May corn closed up 1/4 cent and July corn was down 1/4 cent. May soybeans closed up 3 1/2 cents and July soybeans were up 2 1/2 cents. May KC wheat closed down 6 cents, May Chicago wheat was down 7 1/4 cents, May Minneapolis wheat was up 1 1/2 cents.
Friday was a day of general risk-off trading, with crude oil futures (and other energy markets) leading the way lower after Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz to be open to commercial vessels following the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire agreement on Thursday. There are certainly still a lot of details to iron out, with President Trump also stating that the U.S. blockade of Iran will remain in place. Assuming the hostilities are winding to a close, it remains an uncertainty of how quickly traffic through the Persian Gulf will return to any degree of normalcy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average moved over 1,000 points higher at points on Friday due to the developing news. Row-crop futures initially moved lower along with energy futures but eventually staged a late-morning comeback, with soybean futures managing to turn positive as traders likely view a potential end to the conflict in the Middle East as a long-term positive to the market via U.S.-China relations.
LIVESTOCK:
The fed cash cattle market was only able to hold part of the market steady while the other part traded mildly lower at the close. Unfortunately, traders simply aren't seeing the fundamental support they need or desire. Consequently, that pushed the live cattle contracts lower into Friday's close. There was a bit more trade noted in the South at $248, which is steady with Thursday's business and also steady with the previous week's weighted average. But the North is unfortunately seeing cattle trade lower. There's been some cattle marked in the North to a regional packer for the week of May 11 and currently they're trading at $386, which is $2.00 to $3.00 lower than Thursday's business. On Thursday, Northern cattle were trading at mostly $388 to $389, which is steady to $1.00 lower than last week's weighted average. At this point it's looking like the bulk of the week's trade is complete, although a few more sales could develop after the afternoon's Cattle on Feed report.
In typical feeder cattle complex behavior, the contracts were also trading lower as the market isn't willing to move in the opposite direction of the live cattle complex right now. At this point, a lower tone is fully expected through even though this afternoon's Cattle on Feed report is expected to be mildly bullish.
It's been a long, draining week for the lean hog complex and that description kept with the market through Friday's trade. While it may be frustrating to see midday pork cutout values higher and traders giving that fundamental uptick no recognition, that's simply been the case all week as the market can't seem to find any technical support.