CBOT futures closed near steady to higher with the soy complex leading the market for a second straight day. Corn and KC/Chgo wheat traded narrow ranges mostly inside Monday’s trading range. Corn was pressured by fund selling.  Soybeans, meal and soyoil futures closed at the high end of the range. Also, today’s rally puts soybean futures above the downtrend line and the 200-day moving averages, but still below last week’s highs. If those highs are broken, then resistance comes in 12 cents above that. This positive chart action along with some concerns about Argentina’s soy crop lifted the market (but Brazil is still expected to make a record crop and it’s nearly twice the size of Argentina’s).

Cattle futures closed sharply higher despite lower beef prices. Boxed beef values dropped sharply with Choice down 3.97 to 193.38 and Select down 1.97 at 189.97.  February LC closed limit-up $3.00, so limits expand to $4.50 tomorrow. Futures opened higher this morning and trended upward all day. Cattle futures were supported by ideas that cattle receipts will be down this week and fed cattle cash prices will rise. The February LC contract is at a premium to last week’s cash trade. The early move higher broke through chart resistance and created additional technical buying. The February LC contract has now recovered over 50% of the price drop seen between September 2015 and October 2016. Look for resistance at $123, $124 and $125.

Lean Hog futures closed higher with the nearby February LH contract leading the way up. The gains came in sympathy with cattle’s sharp rally and a dollar/cwt increase in cash prices. Limiting the rally was a big drop in the pork cutout and February LH’s $6/cwt premium to the CME Index. FOB Plant Pork dropped 1.64 to 78.22 with ham down 10%. Some deferred LH contracts broke out to new highs for the current move up.

Corn Mar -2 358; Jly -1 372; Dec -1 386

Bean Mar +8 1014; Jly +8 1030; Nov +6 1000

  Meal +4 317

  Oil +15 3564

Wheat Mar unch 427; Jly unch 454

  KC unch 438; MGE +1 561

Oats +1 226

Rice -1 967

 

LC Feb +300 11952; Apr +270 11867; Aug +217 10332

FC Jan +342 13270; Apr +445 12955; Aug +347 12845

LH Feb +130 6505; Apr +95 6932; Jun +47 7822

Milk Jan +7 1669; Feb +28 1742

US$ +.2%  102.01

Dow -32 19856

SP unch 2269

NAS +20 5552  - new record high close

Tran +72 9095

  VIX -.02 11.54

 

WTI -114 5082

Brent -129 5365

Gas -2 155

NG +17 327

HO -3 161

Eth -2 151

Gold +3 1188

Slvr +15 1683
 

2-yr unch 1.194%

5-yr -.002 1.879%

10yr +.002 2.378%

30yr -.003 2.965%

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