By: NATHAN STUEDLE
GRAINS:
May corn closed down 2 3/4 cents and July corn was down 2 3/4 cents. May soybeans closed down 3 1/4 cents and July soybeans were down 2 3/4 cents. May KC wheat closed up 17 1/4 cents, May Chicago wheat was up 4 3/4 cents, May Minneapolis wheat was up 12 1/4 cents.
For Thursday, wheat markets continued to be the star of the show for the weekly trade in row-crop futures, jumping double digits again in the Kansas City market and setting a new calendar year high early in the session. Despite the strong showing from wheat, corn and soybean futures were unable to join the rally, trading mixed and ultimately lower in a narrow session. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 completed a remarkable turnaround through April to set a new all-time high on Wednesday and again Thursday. Markets are very optimistic that the worst of the war with Iran is behind us, despite the ongoing U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and no official confirmation of a resumption of talks between the U.S. and Iran. However, Israel and Lebanon did agree on Thursday to a 10-day ceasefire. Crude oil futures (and other energy markets) were higher on Thursday but have fallen back toward the bottom of the monthly range since the initial U.S.-Iran ceasefire was agreed on last Tuesday.
LIVESTOCK:
It's been a grim day thus far for the live cattle complex as most of the contracts traded anywhere from $2.00 to $3.00 lower into Thursday's closing bell. The big question on everyone's mind is: Has the market topped? Or is this just a setback as traders wait for the cash cattle market to trade? Up to this point, there's still been virtually no trade in the cash market, and it's very likely trade could be delayed until after Friday's Cattle on Feed report. Bids of $248 live in Kansas and $388 dressed in Nebraska are currently on the table, but still no sizeable volumes have traded. I'm inclined to believe that with packers unable to get more than 40,000 head bought last week in the cash market. they'll need to be more aggressive this week and feedlot managers may be able to push prices higher, or at least hold them steady. But as always, time will tell.
And in reflecting a similar reaction of the live cattle contracts, the feeder cattle complex also traded lower into Thursday's close. And until either the live cattle contracts show some stability and potentially trade higher, or until the cash cattle market trades, it's likely the feeder cattle contracts will keep with this lower trend.
Again on Thursday, even with midday pork cutout values up close to $2.00 higher, the lean hog contracts traded lower. Unfortunately, the market seems committed to keeping with its current downward trend, and the next support plane is close to $94.00 in the spot June contract.