By: NATHAN STUEDLE
GRAINS:
July corn closed down 13 1/4 cents and December corn was down 11 3/4 cents. July soybeans closed down 36 1/2 cents and November soybeans were down 24 1/4 cents. July KC wheat closed down 19 1/2 cents, July Chicago wheat was down 17 1/2 cents, July Minneapolis wheat was down 17 1/4 cents.
Thursday's session was dominated by algorithmic headline trading, sending nearby soybean futures to their worst daily loss in two months, and dragging down corn and wheat futures as well. Though it is difficult to classify details of President Trump's visit to China thus far as "bearish," it is clear traders expected more or perhaps were simply waiting for the event to pass before hitting the sell button to avoid missing out on a bullish surprise. In outside markets, any markets were flat to a touch weaker, perhaps on optimism that the U.S. and China will form a united effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Equity markets were firm on Thursday on optimism regarding the U.S. and China trade relationship.
LIVESTOCK:
The live cattle complex held its wits together this morning and continued to move higher as traders allowed the contracts to successfully rally roughly $1.00 higher but fading towards the closing bell to finish a half dollar lower. More than anything the continued support from the relentless cash market has helped keep the contracts elevated. Yet again Thursday morning more cash trade has taken place and prices have been marked higher. Thus far there's been a handful of cattle traded in Nebraska at $415 -- which is $12 higher than last week's weighted average. Otherwise earlier this week light trade took place every day with some pretty wide ranges. Northern dressed deals have traded in a range of $400 to $410, mostly $405 to $410, $2 to $7 higher than last week's weighted averages. Southern live deals have had a range of $260 to $265, mostly $260 to $262, $3 to $5 higher than the prior week's weighted averages. But thanks to the continued efforts of feedlot managers, the market is witnessing a true rally in the cash market where price discovery is the main theme of this bullish run.
The feeder cattle contracts also enjoyed a modest rally into Thursday's noon hour, but faded with their live counter-parts to finish in the red at the closing bell. Luckily Thursday's upward move portion early, helped pull the spot August contract up to the market's 40-day moving average which remains a threshold that bull-spreaders should want the complex to conquer. But the contracts couldn't hold the gains.
The lean hog complex was lower heading into Thursday's closing bell as traders would like to continue to see the contracts scale higher but aren't confident there's currently enough support in the market to successfully do so. Yes, midday pork cutout values were higher, but the cash market has been of little support this week.