By: JATHAN STUEDLE
GRAINS:
July corn closed up 1 1/4 cents and December corn was unchanged. July soybeans closed down 5 3/4 cents and November soybeans were down 2 cents. July KC wheat closed up 9 cents, July Chicago wheat was up 3 1/4 cents, July Minneapolis wheat was unchanged.
Corn and wheat markets finally found some sense of stability following a two-week rout which sent prices to multi-month lows, with corn futures reversing off early lows as bargain buyers finally stepped in after six consecutive sharply lower sessions. Soybean futures have also seen selling pace slow in recent sessions but remained lower, with traders frustrated by a lack of confirmed sales to China for the upcoming marketing year. Outside markets leaned positive for Monday, with stocks recovering from an ugly close to the week on Friday. Crude oil (and other energy) futures were marginally higher as well after a weekend of escalated attacks between Iran and Israel, though crude prices fell from daily highs after both sides agreed to halt the renewed aggression for now.
LIVESTOCK:
It was a back-and-forth day for the live cattle complex as the market initially started Monday stronger, trading higher as yet two new cases of New World screwworm were detected over the weekend, bringing the nation's total number of confirmed cases to four. But as the market entered the noon hour, the complex fell lower, seemingly less confident in just about everything at this point. It does seem as though the market's 40-day moving average is going to be a tough resistance point to break through unless strong fundamental support develops.
Keeping in alignment with the live cattle complex, the feeder cattle contracts also traded $3.00 to $4.00 lower into Monday's closing bell. But looking at the feeder cattle contracts, their biggest technical hurdle is going to be the market's 100-day moving average as the spot August contract hasn't traded above that threshold since May 22.
With a weaker tone hovering over the entire livestock complex -- coupled with the fact that pork cutout values were lower at the day's start -- the lean hog contracts were once again trading lower. Until consumer support strengthens, it's likely the contracts will remain skeptical of being overly bullish in this extremely choppy market.