By: NATHAN STUEDLE
GRAINS:
December corn closed down 3 1/2 cents and March corn was down 3 1/4 cents. November soybeans closed down 1 cent and January soybeans were down 1 1/2 cents. December KC wheat closed down 5 cents, December Chicago wheat was down 4 1/2 cents, December Minneapolis wheat was down 3 3/4 cents.
Ag futures took a breather following a strong four day run up in prices as traders are content at this point to pause and reevaluate positions ahead of the end of U.S. harvest and the upcoming trade meeting between President Trump and President Xi of China. Technical resistance in the row crop markets likely also played a role in incentivizing some selling on Tuesday. For outside markets, the most notable storyline for Tuesday was the sudden and volatile reversal in gold futures, reported by the Wall Street Journal to be among the largest single day loss in over a decade, just one session removed from setting yet another record high as profit-taking seemed to morph into compounding fear induced selling as the session wore on. This was a source of widespread pressure on commodities for Tuesday, and agricultural markets were no exception.
LIVESTOCK:
Although the live cattle complex originally started the day off weaker, the market changed its direction and again traded higher into the day's closing bell. The market continues to recover some of the position lost last Friday as traders believe that the market's fundamentals will continue to support the market's bullish underpinning. Still no developments have occurred in the fed cash cattle market, and trade will likely be delayed until the second half of the week.
The feeder cattle complex also traded higher into Tuesday's close, but the market isn't doing so wildly. The feeder cattle contracts were trading around $1.00 higher throughout most of the contracts, through most of the session, seeming to keep right in line with the live cattle market's pace, but not storming $3.00 to $5.00 higher like the contracts did just a couple of weeks ago. More than anything, traders seem to respect and acknowledge the strong fundamental position, but at the same time, they see and are keenly aware of the technical risk that lingers.
The lean hog complex was trading higher as well into Tuesday's close, as the market is potentially finding somewhat of a bottom in the futures complex. After trailing mostly lower since late September, the lean hog complex could be establishing a support plane.