Tuesday's Closing Grain & Livestock Futures Prices.
Jul. corn closed at $4.69 and 3/4, down 8 and 1/4 cents
Jul. soybeans closed at $14.88 and 3/4, down 26 and 3/4 cents
Jul. soybean meal closed at $494.20, down $8.40
Jul. soybean oil closed at 39.94, down 44 points
Jul. wheat closed at $6.41, down 11 and 1/2 cents
Jun. live cattle closed at $135.60, down 70 cents
Jun. lean hogs closed at $116.50, down 35 cents
Jul. crude oil closed at $104.11, down 24 cents
Jul. cotton closed at 84.97, down 134 points
Jun. Class III milk closed at $21.78, up 72 cents
Jun. gold closed at $1,265.50, down $26.20
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 16,675.50, up 69.23 points
For additional futures prices and charts click http://www.farms.com/markets
Agri Market News Review
Soybeans were lower on fund and technical selling. There’s no change to those bullish near term fundamentals, but traders seem reluctant to push beans past the recent highs. The trade’s also trying to find a level for demand rationing and watching imports ahead of the USDA numbers out in June. USDA reports 59% of soybeans planted, compared to 56% on average and 25% have emerged, compared to 27% on average. Soybean meal and oil were lower, following beans.
Corn was lower on fund and technical selling. Corn was expecting good planting progress over the past week, except for parts of the Northern Cornbelt. According to the Ag Department, 88% of corn is planted, matching the five year average, and 60% has emerged, compared to 64% on average. The trade expects generally good planting and development weather this week. Ethanol futures were mixed. Reuters reports China has imported “a small amount” of corn from Brazil.
The wheat complex was lower on fund and technical selling. Chicago led the way down with soft red winter in comparatively good condition. There was some much needed rain in the Southern Plains over the weekend, but it was too late to help part of the crop, which limited losses in Kansas City. Losses in Minneapolis were limited by the slow spring planting pace. For the winter crop, 70% has headed and 30% is called good to excellent, a 1% week to week improvement, with the poor to very poor category unchanged at 44%. For spring wheat, 74% is planted, compared to 82% on average, with 43% has emerged, compared to 57% on average. The trade’s also watching conditions, and politics, around the Black Sea region.
Cattle country is typically quiet following the distribution of the new showlists. Ready numbers are somewhat larger than last week. A few asking prices have been posted around 145.00 to 146.00 in the South and 234.00 to 235.00 in the North. Significant trade volume will probably be delayed until Thursday or Friday. The kill totaled 119,000 head, 1,000 more than last week, but 6,000 below last year.
Boxed beef cutout values were higher on moderate demand and light to moderate offerings. Choice beef was up 1.14 at 233.12, and select was 1.75 higher at 222.65.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle contracts settled 12 to 70 points lower and ignored the higher wholesale prices in the morning report and the possibility that holiday clearance was fairly decent, at least for now. Some of the selling pressure may have been linked to technical demand and the defensive look of charts following Friday’s sell-off. June was .70 lower at 135.60 and August was down .37 at 136.75.
Feeder cattle contracts settled 60 to 82 points higher due to short covering and the helpful implications of new lows in the corn market. August settled .65 higher at 193.50, and September was .65 higher at 194.80.
Feeder cattle receipts at the Ft. Pierre Livestock Auction at Ft. Pierre, South Dakota totaled 2683 head. There was good demand for several long strings of feeder steers and feeder heifers which sold on an active market despite triple digit losses across the feeder cattle board. There was very good demand for several strings of replacement heifers which sold on a very active market. 629 head of steers averaging 828 pounds averaged 196.35 per hundredweight. 528 head of 827 pound replacement heifers brought 189.13.
Lean hogs ended the session 40 points higher to 35 lower. Although there was some black ink in fourth quarter contracts, most lean contracts traded some lower. The spot June had some difficulty defending its premium thanks to the steady down drift of the spot cash market according to John Harrington at DTN. June settled .35 lower at 116.50 and July was down .30 at 123.42.
Barrows and gilts in the Iowa/Minnesota direct trade closed 1.71` lower at 108.32 weighted average on a carcass basis, the West was down 1.33 at 108.04, and the East closed at 104.94 with no price comparison. Missouri direct base carcass meat price was steady to 3.00 higher from 96.00 to 103.00. Barrows and gilts at Midwest markets were steady with an instance of 2.00 lower from 72.00 to 80.00 live.
The pork carcass cutout value was 2.17 lower at 112.89 FOB plant. The belly primal was more than 10.00 lower.
Hog slaughter last week totaled 1.973 million head, down 1.3% from the week before and down 4.8% compared to last year. Though perhaps skewed somewhat by the holiday, the decrease versus 2013 seems to growing.
Tuesday’s hog kill was estimated at 424,000 head, 12,000 more than last week and down 1,000 from last year.
Click here to see more...