By: NATHAN STUEDLE
GRAINS:
December corn closed up 2 cents and March corn was up 3/4 cents. January soybeans closed down 3/4 cents and March soybeans were down 1 1/2 cents. December KC wheat closed up 2 3/4 cents, December Chicago wheat was up 3 1/4 cents, December Minneapolis wheat was down 1 1/4 cents.
Row-crop markets held near even for most of the session on Wednesday but still among the highest prices observed in months as traders remain optimistic on commodity demand but at this point are willing to wait for the long anticipated meeting on Thursday between President Trump and President Xi of China before deciding their next round of trades. In outside markets, the Federal Reserve voted Wednesday to cut interest rates by a quarter point in what was an expected move, with further cuts expected in December and again in January. Equity markets extended gains into what have become daily records over the past week on the interest rate news as well as the wide sense of trade optimism across markets.
LIVESTOCK:
The live cattle complex was finally trading higher as the market has received confirmation that, although Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins spoke with officials in Mexico last Friday, there is no date currently on the table to reopen the border, as New World screwworm remains a concern. This was the bullish news that the market needed to hear to trade higher following last week's catastrophic decline. This positive news helped the spot December live cattle contract turn higher, and thankfully, now the contract is trading back above the market's 100-day moving average. No new trade has developed in the fed cash cattle market, following the light business that developed Monday afternoon. So far this week, there's been some cattle traded in the North at $360, which is $9.00 lower than the previous week's weighted average. There is a chance that if the board continues to trade higher than the fed cash cattle market may see prices better than what was traded on Monday. Asking prices range anywhere from $234 to $240 in the South and are still not established in the North.
The feeder cattle complex saw the headline it needed to see to begin to put fear behind it and again trade higher. Upon receiving confirmation that the US intends to keep its border closed and does not have a date pinned down for when it intends to see the border reopened to allow Mexican cattle to be imported into the U.S., the feeder cattle complex can now again breathe easy.
Pork cutout values may be a tick higher, but the lean hog complex couldn't seem to muster up enough support to really move the contracts higher. The cash market will likely continue to trade lower as packers were extremely aggressive in Tuesday's market and won't likely need many more hogs ahead of the week's end.