Although CBOT futures performed well Sunday evening, the tide turned south overnight and accelerated downward after the 830 am CT reopening – resulting in lower closes.  Most of the pressure was blamed on beneficial rainfall in Argentina over the weekend.

Corn futures are down for the third straight day and now are priced in the middle of the 20-cent trading range.  Soybean futures erased Friday’s gains and closed even lower. Soybean and soybean meal futures closed at/near the day’s lows and are now at the bottom of the trading range and sit just above critical chart support. If this support is broken, it may open up 40 cents of downside risk – or down to $9.80 in the January contract.

Beyond the nearby December Live Cattle contract, cattle futures closed mostly higher with most contracts hitting new highs for this move that started back in mid-October.  Live Cattle are around $16/cwt above those lows and Feeder Cattle are $15-20/cwt higher. Market strength was tied to last week’s cash market strength with the price up almost $2/cwt from the previous week. Packer margins are excellent and boxed beef was higher today. Choice up 0.76 at 195.39; Select up 1.96 at 183.05.

Lean Hog futures closed widely mixed with the nearby February LH contract up a sharp 1.40, while June lost .60.  With February at a huge premium to the current cash market, the buying was probably technical in nature as this strong $18.00 rally keeps on rolling. Major resistance for February LH is only $4 away at 70.00. Hard to believe, but this contract since mid-June, or 6 months ago, has dropped $22.00 and rallied $18.00, for a $40.00 round-trip. FOB Plant Pork gained .74 to 78.59 on a 3.5% gain in belly value.
 

Corn Mar -3 353; Jly -3 367; Dec -2 384

Bean Jan -15 1021; May -14 1040; Nov -8 1012

  Meal -5 312

  Oil -18 3656

Wheat Mar -4 405; Jly -3 431

  KC -1 414; MGE -3 541

Oats +1 225

Rice unch 947
 

LC Dec -37 11195; Feb +57 11592; Jun +42 10467

FC Jan +102 13092; Apr +50 12610; Aug +15 12462

LH Feb +105 6575; Apr +10 6840; Jun -90 7705

Milk Jan +24 1719; Feb +14 1728

US$ +.1%

Dow +40 19883

SP +4 2263

NAS +20 5457

Tran +65 9233

  VIX -.49 11.71 

WTI +1 5191

Brent -40 5481

Gas unch 156

NG -1 341

HO -1 166

Eth +3 160

Gold +3 1141

Slvr -20 1601

 

2-yr -.029 1.228%

5-yr -.040 2.025%

10yr -.055 2.542%

30yr -.056 3.125%

Kentucky Weekly Livestock Summary for the week of Dec 12-17, 2016.
**Due to the upcoming holidays, this report will next be published on 9 Jan 2016**

Receipts 
This Week            Last Week         Last Year
24,350               33,842            14,969
   Compared to last week steer calves traded mostly steady to 3.00 higher and heifer calves mostly steady to 4.00 higher with moderate to good demand on a plain through good quality offering.  Yearling steers and heifers sold mostly steady to 3.00 higher with moderate to good demand.  Slaughter cows sold steady to 2.00 lower and slaughter bulls sold steady to 4.00 lower with moderate to good demand.