By: NATHAN STUEDLE
St. Joseph Post
GRAINS:
May corn closed down 1/2 cents and December corn was down 1 1/2 cents. May soybeans closed down 7 cents and November soybeans were down 6 3/4 cents. May KC wheat closed down 6 3/4 cents, May Chicago wheat was down 10 1/4 cents, May Minneapolis wheat was down 5 1/4 cents.
It was another slow session for U.S. ag markets to begin the new week, with relatively low volume behind the trade as corn and soy continue to stall at chart resistance. Wheat markets are quickly retreating back toward long-term support on Kansas City futures, with decent rainfall across the Southern Plains and the forecast for more chances over the next two weeks being the main source of pressure to wheat prices. In outside markets, following a brief period of stabilization, stock indices have turned heavily downward over the past three sessions as President Trump has voiced his displeasure with Fed Chair Jerome Powell's monetary policy in recent days, leading to unease among investors. The U.S Dollar Index made a new low for its move Monday morning, hitting its lowest level since March of 2022. Meanwhile, gold futures surged to fresh all-time highs amid vast uncertainty in markets.
LIVESTOCK:
The live cattle complex seemed as though it wanted to trade higher -- but as the days' time slowly passed by, skepticism was center-stage for the cattle complex. One could point to last Friday's Cattle on Feed report for something to blame, but traders are closely monitoring the equity markets and aren't going to trade too oppositely of what they're doing. And while this may be the market's direction currently, the bullish push in last week's fed cash cattle market amid higher prices already this morning for boxed beef to be an equally compelling argument as to why the market should trade higher. So once again here we sit, waiting for time to solve the puzzle.
The feeder cattle contracts also traded lower, not finding enough immediate support in Monday's market to justify pressuring resistance and advancing the contracts any higher. It will be interesting to see if sales are met with the same kind of demand this week.
The lean hog complex continued to grind higher, although a couple of the nearly contracts traded slightly lower at various points in the day, as traders question if the market has enough support to take on immediate resistance thresholds. The Spot June contract is currently trading near the highest point in which the market has traded since the middle of March.
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