By: NATHAN STUEDLE
GRAINS:
September corn closed down 8 3/4 cents and December corn was down 8 cents. August soybeans closed down 1/2 cent and November soybeans were down 5 1/2 cents. September KC wheat closed down 7 1/2 cents, September Chicago wheat was down 10 3/4 cents, September Minneapolis wheat was down 2 1/4 cents.
Corn, soybeans and wheat futures paused their five-day rallies on Wednesday, in a classic example of "buying the rumor, selling the fact" after USDA finally confirmed the rumored round of soybean sales to China on Wednesday morning. The argument for weather risk in markets remains valid for the time being with hotter and drier conditions in the U.S. forecast to late July, and the European situation still challenging to developing spring crops. The breaking news late Tuesday and early Wednesday was the apparent end to the ceasefire in the Middle East. The U.S. struck back against a series of ship attacks by Iran on Tuesday, with President Trump saying the deal made in June is over. Crude oil futures naturally jumped on the developments. Meanwhile, Wednesday's Petroleum Status report showed the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell to a new low going back to the early 1980s, while last week's production was the highest since November 2025.
LIVESTOCK:
Live cattle futures continued to scale lower as, simply put, there isn't enough immediate support in the market to keep the contracts from trading lower. With boxed beef prices lower and the assumption the cash market could be pushed lower again this week too, traders are erring on the side of extra caution while the market continues to look for support. Asking prices are noted at $400 in eastern Nebraska, but otherwise the cash market is sitting idle.
Although feeder cattle demand has been relatively strong this week, traders aren't going to move the feeder cattle contracts in the opposite direction of the live cattle contracts. But did manage for the front months to finish softly into the green. The spot August contract continues to hover around the market's 100-day and 40-day moving averages -- hoping some form of stronger support will arise quickly and keep the market from sinking sharply below those thresholds.
The lean hog contracts were seeing some additional support Wednesday. We saw a rally anywhere between $1.00 to $2.00 higher heading into Wednesday's noon hour. It's helpful that packers have been more aggressive this week in the cash market and that this morning pork cutout values are higher. Both factors helped encourage traders to continue to push the contracts higher.