By: NATHAN STUEDLE
GRAINS:
July corn closed down 1 cent and December corn was down 1/2 cent. July soybeans closed down 2 1/2 cents and November soybeans were down 2 cents. July KC wheat closed down 19 3/4 cents, July Chicago wheat was down 5 cents, July Minneapolis wheat was down 18 1/4 cents.
U.S. crop futures were lower for a third straight session on Thursday, but saw corn and soybeans climb well above their early morning lows by the close, as initial headline-induced selling may have reached an exhaustion point as traders await updates out of the Middle East. The latest for Thursday was that Iran is currently reviewing a U.S. proposal for restarting nuclear negotiations and ending the war. Crude oil futures also rallied from early lows and eventually turned higher in the early afternoon, avoiding a third straight lower session, which has not occurred in WTI futures since the war began in late February. Meanwhile, despite ongoing crop and weather concerns, wheat futures plummeted on Thursday, likely driven by short-term technically-based momentum more so than any significant fundamental update.
LIVESTOCK:
The live cattle contracts may have traded moderately lower, but thankfully, that's not hindering the cash market's ability to trade higher. Within the last hour, there's been some light trade noted in the North at $402, which is $3.00 higher than last week's weighted average, and some light trade has developed in the South at $256 to $257, which is $2.00 higher than last week's weighted average. So even though last week's market jumped $9.00 to $14.00 higher, packers are obviously still short bought and in need of more cattle as they're having to push prices higher again this week in the cash market. One would hope that this bullish development in the market's fundamentals would have a positive effect on the futures complex.
And even though there have been some positive developments in the fed cash cattle market, the feeder cattle contracts opted to trade in alignment with the live cattle contracts, as most of the feeder cattle contracts were trading around $6.00 lower into Thursday's close. If the live cattle contracts happen to trade higher, then there's a strong chance that the feeder cattle contracts will follow the live cattle market's lead and could see stronger prices ahead of the weeks end, but as always, time will tell.
The lean hog complex is trading mixed into midday Thursday as the nearby contracts are currently trading mildly higher while the deferred contracts continue to trade lower. It is helpful to see that midday pork cutout values are up slightly, but before traders will trust that development, they'll need to see multiple days in which pork demand is stronger.