Corn May unch 331; Jly unch 336; Dec -1 350 (345-52)

Bean May -9 854; Jly -9 862; Nov -5 870 (867-82)

Meal -4 289

  Oil -51 2690

Wheat May -1 555; Jly -2 555 (553-64); Dec -1 566

  KC +2 494; MGE -5 527

Oats unch 275

Rice -19 1432

 

All cattle futures ended down the daily limit.

LC -300  Apr 9100; Jun 8137; Aug 8775; Oct 9365

FC -450  Apr 11502; Aug 12437; Oct 12540

LH has a new base daily limit of 375 points (550 expanded).

  Apr +210 4490; May -375 3967; Jly -372 5102; Oct -147 5080

Milk Apr +6 1362; May -52 1091; Jun -75 limit 1207

 -- Since all four of these commodities had limit-down closes, they will have expanded limits tomorrow.

See the end of this email for UK’s Beef Management Webinar Series.
 

CBOT futures closed mostly lower to steady. The entire soy complex led the market to the downside, pressured by poor weekly export inspections (reported this morning), sharp losses in livestock futures (COVID-related), slow export sales and a weaker Brazilian currency (real). May soybean meal made a new contract low and low close today. Corn followed soybeans lower early today. December YC hit a new contract low around 9:30 am CT before recovering to almost unchanged. The day’s high was hit soon after the market opened Sunday evening. Corn export inspections were good but the pace needs to increase to reach the USDA marketing year forecast. A lack of crude oil price responding much to the OPEC+ oil deal over the weekend also weighed on the market. KC wheat was supported by cold temperatures and dryness in areas of Europe and Russia. Wheat demand is firm as importers want to ensure food security in light of COVID-19.

Cattle futures closed down the daily limit of $3.00 in Live Cattle and $4.50/cwt in Feeder Cattle. Traders are concerned that beef packing plants will not keep up with the number of market-ready cattle due to COVID-related labor shortages and plant closures for cleaning. Last week’s F.I. steer and heifer slaughter was down 14.4% week/week. April LC futures are at a steep discount to last week’s cash price. Cash may have to follow futures lower to get the April LC contract settled. Choice beef gained 1.93 to 225.86 and Select jumped 3.07 to 211.40. Packer margins are likely to widen again.

Except for the soon-to-expire April LH contract, lean hog futures closed sharply lower with May and June LH locking down the daily $3.75 limit. As in cattle futures, traders are selling on worries that packing capacity won’t keep up with the hogs coming to market. The latest news is that Smithfield’s Sioux City plant will close for an undetermined time period due to a huge number of their workers testing positive for COVID. This plant reportedly accounts for 3.8% of total hog processing capacity. FOB Plant Pork dropped only .02 to 52.87. The steadiness of the total cutout value contrasts with extreme moves in various cuts. Butts were up 11% and Bellies rose 15%. Ribs fell 7% and hams dropped 13%.

 

US$ steady

Dow -329 23391

SP -28 2762

NAS +39 8192

Tran -200 8037

  VIX -.37 41.30

 

WTI +53 2935 June (May 2279)

Brent +35 3183

Gas +4 72

NG -1 173

HO +3 101

Eth +1 94

Gold +9 1761

Slvr -52 1554

 

2-yr +.020 0.245%

5-yr +.028 0.441%

10yr +.035 0.757%

30yr +.046 1.394%

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