By NATHAN STUEDLE
St. Joseph Post
GRAINS:
May corn closed up 4 1/2 cents and December corn was down 1/4 cents. May soybeans closed up 9 3/4 cents and November soybeans were down 3 1/4 cents. May KC wheat closed up 2 1/4 cents, May Chicago wheat was up 3 1/2 cents, May Minneapolis wheat was up 7 cents.
For the most part on Tuesday, U.S. agricultural markets staged a recovery attempt from the lows set immediately following last week's tariff-induced selloff. Soybean futures led the way Tuesday, quickly pushing back toward $10.00 on May futures, despite little optimism being reported in regard to negotiations between the U.S. and China, and the U.S. set to go ahead with another additional 50% tariff on China when the policies take effect on Wednesday. For Tuesday, reports that the Trump administration was open to negotiations/deals and had begun talks with trading partners was enough of a bullish spark to send stock indices higher, although markets faded significantly off their daily highs by late morning as general uncertainty still plagues the market.
LIVESTOCK:
The live cattle complex continued to follow the direction of the equity markets as traders continue to watch closely for any changes in the external facets of the marketplace. Thankfully, with the equity markets finding some support and stability, the live cattle complex also traded softly higher for much of the session and ended mixed. Still no developments have surfaced for this week's cash cattle trade, and it's likely that if the board continues to trade favorably feedlot managers may elect to hold strong and push the week's trade out until Thursday or Friday.
The feeder cattle complex leaped higher at Tuesday's start and continued to trade higher for the bulk of the session only to end mixed at the closing bell. With the added support of the equity market's higher direction and the live cattle market's stronger trend, the feeder cattle complex feels equipped to trade higher.
The lean hog complex wasn't as confident about the marketplace today as the nearby contracts traded higher, but the rest of the contracts traded lower. Pork cutout values were lower which isn't helping matters either as traders could use the added support of stronger market fundamentals.
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