CBOT futures closed steady in corn and wheat, but lower in soybeans and meal. Forecasts for rain in South America weighed on the soy complex. Soybean futures closed near the day’s lows and set a new low for the current downtrend. January Soybean has sits 70 cents below the highs posted two weeks ago.

While the nearby December LC closed unchanged, deferred LC and FC contracts closed lower. The Christmas and New Years holidays will interrupt processing. Compared to the midday Choice quote of 203.73, Choice finished down 1.39 at 201.76; Select down 0.69 at 184.32.  Feeder Cattle contracts at testing chart support at the lows posted over the last two weeks.

Lean Hog futures closed lower in follow-through selling after Monday’s bearish reversal. LH was pressured by cattle’s price decline and lower cash hog prices. FOB Plant Pork gained .41 to 76.27. Hog slaughter last week was record large.

Corn Mar unch 347 (346-49); Jly unch 364; Dec +1 381

Bean Jan -5 956 (955-64); Jly -5 988; Nov -6 977

  Meal -3 315

  Oil +20 3322

Wheat Mar -1 419; Jly unch 446 (446-50)

  KC +1 420; MGE -1 618

Oats -5 246

Rice unch 1171

 

LC Dec unch 12000; Apr -55 12147; Jun -70 11357

FC Jan -245 14520; Apr -187 14367; Aug -177 14615

LH Feb -50 6690; Apr -57 7167; Jun -87 8127

Milk Dec -6 1544; Jan -12 1393

 

US$ -.2%

Dow -37 24755

SP -9 2681

NAS -31 6964

Tran +14 10536

  VIX +.50 10.03

 

WTI +30 5746

Brent +43 6384

Gas +2 170

NG -5 1615

HO +1 194

Eth unch 127

Gold -1 1264

Slvr -5 1615

2-yr +.025 1.857%

5-yr +.054 2.221%

10yr +.072 2.464%

30yr +.075 2.819%

November Milk Production in the United States up 1.0 Percent

Milk production in the United States during November totaled 17.3 billion pounds, up 1.0 percent from November 2016.

Production per cow in the United States averaged 1,839 pounds for November, 9 pounds above November 2016.

The number of milk cows on farms in the United States was 9.40 million head, 53,000 head more than November 2016, but unchanged from October 2017.