CBOT futures closed mostly lower except for strong gains in old-crop soybean and soybean meal contracts. Corn and wheat rallied overnight with soybeans, but they sold off from 7 am to 9 am, followed by a rally into midday. That’s when soybeans diverged from the corn and wheat prices. Soybeans maintained the recovery but corn and wheat sold off sharply into the close. Corn actually ended near the day’s lows. Corn futures closed below key 200-day moving averages after posting bearish price reversals. The selling was likely aggressive profit-taking and farmer selling amid a reduction in short-covering by the funds.

Live cattle futures closed mostly weaker and Feeder cattle made variable gains. Cattle futures have been weighed down by a bearish attitude of late and weakness in low-volume cash cattle sales well below last Friday’s price. April LC and cash are fairly matched. Boxed beef values ended the day about a dollar/cwt lower than the midday quotes. Choice ended down 2.05 at 220.72; Select down 0.19 at 212.77. The monthly Cattle on Feed report will be released Friday afternoon.

Lean Hog futures closed narrowly mixed. LH found support from pork’s recovery from Wednesday’s lower values. FOB Plant Pork closed up 1.26 to 80.86 with all primal cuts higher in value. The midday quote was up .71. Lean Hogs traded a lot lower in the morning, but closed near the day’s highs.

Corn May -10 384; Jly -10 390; Dec -9 393
Bean May +9 1019; Jly +8 1027; Nov -1 998
Meal +6 325
Oil -43 3421
Wheat May -8 496; Jly -9 503 
KC Jly -4 500; MGE -6 551
Oats -6 201
Rice +1 1066

LC Apr +20 12650; Aug -50 11392; Oct -52 11390
FC Apr +5 14945; Aug +27 14605; Oct +87 14360
LH May -20 7702; Jly +20 8007; Oct +35 6915 
Milk Apr -2 1367; May -21 1337

US$ +.1%
Dow -114 17983
SP -11 2091
NAS -2 4946
Tran -98 8011
VIX +.67 13.95

WTI -75 4343
Brent -104 4476
Gas +1 152
NG -1 206
HO -2 131
Eth -2 156
Gold -4 1249
Slvr -13 1700

2-yr unch 0.806%
5-yr +.010 1.332%
10yr +.013 1.865%
30yr +.028 2.687%

Lexington, KY - Blue Grass Stockyards
Cattle Weekly Summary Report for the week ending 04/12/16

Receipts: 1696 Last Week: 2452 Year Ago: 2141 
Compared to last week steers and heifers opened steady Monday with moderate demand market somewhat mixed by Tuesday; however lower CME cattle futures put downward pressure on calf prices again this week and prices noticeably lower on light and middleweight calves by Mid-week. Slaughter cows sold 2.00 to 3.00 lower with light demand and slaughter bulls sold 1.00 to 2.00 lower with moderate demand.