By: NATHAN STUEDLE
GRAINS:
July corn closed up 21 1/4 cents and December corn was up 17 cents. July soybeans closed up 36 cents and November soybeans were up 30 1/4 cents. July KC wheat closed up 15 3/4 cents, July Chicago wheat was up 28 3/4 cents, July Minneapolis wheat was up 18 cents.
The market received extreme relief from last week's sharp selloff with soybean and corn futures recovering most of the lost territory after the White House released their fact sheet following last week's summit in Beijing. According to U.S. officials, China has agreed to purchase $17 billion in U.S. agricultural products in each of the next three years, with some mention that number is in addition to the 25 million metric tons (mmt) of soybeans agreed upon last October in South Korea. In macro news, crude oil futures were higher for the sixth time in the past seven sessions, almost completing a move back to late April highs prior to the most recent rumors of a nearing peace agreement and subsequent risk-off trade. Meanwhile, inflation concerns are once again on the rise, with the 10-year Treasury yield hitting its highest mark in a year on Friday.
LIVESTOCK:
Initially the live cattle complex was off to a bullish start as all of its contracts were trading higher at Monday's open, but as traders saw how close the market was to resistance pressure -- they quickly changed their mind and have gingerly walked the contracts back into the red. Show-lists this week are lighter in Texas, but mostly steady in Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado. Last week Northern dressed cattle traded at mostly $410 to $415 which is $7.00 to $12.00 higher than the previous week's weighted average and Southern live cattle traded at mostly $260 to $263 which is $3.00 to $5.00 higher than the previous week's weighted average.
And in keeping with the same theme in which the market has been doing now for weeks on end -- the feeder cattle complex continues to closely track and mimic the movements of the live cattle complex. And with later this week the Monthly Cattle on Feed report set to be released -- the market could remain more cautious ahead of that report's release.
Even though pork cutout values were higher, the lean hog complex was trading lower as traders remain uncomfortable with the support -- or more so lack of fundamental support -- that they've recently seen in the marketplace. A choppy sideways trend is most likely going to continue in the hog complex until something noticeable develops from the market's fundamentals.