Corn May -5 326; Jly -4 332; Dec -3 346 (346-51)

Bean May -7 847; Jly -7 855; Nov -5 865 (863-72)

Meal -1 287

  Oil -16 2674

Wheat May -6 549; Jly -6 550 (546-57); Dec -4 562

  KC -10 484; MGE -6 521

Oats +2 277

Rice -4 1428

 

LC Apr +270 9370; Jun +242 8380; Oct +182 9547

FC Apr +137 11640; Aug +197 12635; Oct +235 12775

LH Apr +75 4565; May -167 3800; Aug +40 5497

Milk Apr +3 1366; May +14 1112; Jun +14 12227

 

CBOT futures closed lower and near the day’s lows. Futures held up well overnight, but headed south after the 830 am CT reopening. Futures were pressured by weakness in crude oil futures (despite the OPEC+ deal) and concerns that meat processing problems will reduce feed demand. This has especially hit soybean meal futures which the May contract hit a new contract low and low close today. May meal is $40/ton below the March high. The July meal contract looks much the same. Wheat futures were pressured by forecasted rain in Europe/Russia and by Egypt buying Russian wheat. U.S. winter wheat is rated 62% good/excellent versus 60% a year ago. Corn made new contract low closes. Traders anticipate next week’s weather will accelerate corn planting (on 4-12 it was 3%) . More ethanol plants are closing. Speculators are heavily short corn futures and would love to push corn lower. Need some export sales to block them. The spec funds are slightly long soybean futures.

Live and feeder cattle futures closed strongly higher following Monday’s limit-down moves. The rally was likely short-covering given a lack of cash trading. Boxed beef rallied as slaughter is running way behind this week due to plant closures. Monday’s estimated receipts were 92,000 head, compared to 110,000 head a week ago. Choice beef rose .81 to 226.67 and Select jumped 4.37 to 215.77. The recent sharp rally in the U.S. stock market and talk of opening parts of the economy have been supportive.

Lean Hog futures closed widely mixed due to uncertainty about hog plant closures. Through today, hog slaughter is estimated at 750,000 head, or more than 200,000 head below last Mon/Tues. Live hogs are backing up in the marketing chain. April LH edged higher as it works to converge with the anticipated CME Lean Hog Index. Tomorrow is the last trading day for April LH. With May LH at $38/cwt, traders obviously expect the hog situation to worsen. FOB Plant Pork changed little today, up .20 to 53.07. Bellies continued to rally – up 4.21 to 47.77. Ribs rose 4% and picnic value was up over 6%. Loins did drop 5% in value.

 

US$ -.5% 98.86

Dow +559 23950

SP +84 2846

NAS +323 8516

Tran +141 8178

  VIX -3.41 37.76

 

WTI -134 2792

Brent -174 3000

Gas +6 76

NG -9 163

HO -4 95

Eth unch 95

Gold -6 1756

Slvr +51 1604

2-yr -.022 0.221%

5-yr -.011 0.419%

10yr -.002 0.747%

30yr +.008 1.398%

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