Corn May unch 343; Jly unch 349; Dec +1 364 (359-65)

Bean May +21 884; Jly +21 885; Nov +12 872 (858-85)

  Meal +8 334

  oil +50 2614

Wheat May +23 562; Jly +20 556 (534-58)

  KC +20 489; MGE +9 530 

oats +6 268

rice -5 1323

LC all limit up 300 cents

  Apr 9510; Aug 8965; Oct 9245

FC all limit up 450 cents

  Mar 11707; May 11302; Aug 11940

LH Apr +300 limit 6115; May +130 6000; Jly +210 7245

Milk Apr +35 1602; May +18 1524 

CBOT futures closed steady in corn to sharply higher in wheat and the soy complex. Corn remains under pressure from the contraction in ethanol production (note that gasoline futures collapsed to 41 cents/gallon today; ethanol is 88 cents). Soybean meal is leading the soybean market up as China looks to source U.S. supplies as shipments are delayed from Argentina. Wheat is supported by ideas that Russia could restrict exports and by increased U.S. miller demand to meet consumer demand for flour as they stock up food supplies, including meat of all kinds. The wheat rally gets futures back to month-ago levels. Soybean futures have recovered a good portion of the mid-month losses. However, corn futures remain around a dime from their contract lows.

Live cattle and feeder cattle futures opened up the daily limit and did not trade into the close. Tomorrow’s limits will be expanded by 50%. Cattle futures are catching up with last week’s soaring boxed beef values, which rose strongly again today. Choice Beef jumped 3.57 to 257.32 and Select increased 4.97 to 245.14. The beef market has risen so fast and far ahead of the cash cattle market that last week’s estimated packer margins rose to $580 per head, up $410 from the previous week. In light of this, Tyson announced it would pay an extra $5/cwt for live cattle over and above the base price (contracts I assume) – for this week only.

Lean hog futures also closed strongly higher to limit-up. This 5-day rally in April LH has brought prices near the March high of $66.37. April LH has outperformed deferred LH futures because consumers are demanding more pork at the grocery store. The pork cutout gained around $10.00 last week and added to it today. FOB Plant Pork rose 3.47 to 83.51. All primal cuts except for hams were up strongly. LH will have expanded limits of $4.50/cwt tomorrow.

US$ +0.5%  102.45

Dow -582 18592

SP -68 2237

NAS -19 6861

TRan -134 6704

  VIX -4.45  61.59

 

WTI +73 2336

brent +5 2703

gas -19 41

NG unch 160

HO +1 102

eth -10 88

gold +83 1568

slvr +88 1326 

 

2-yr -.046 0.320%

5-yr -.114 0.406%

10yr -.175 0.763%

30yr -.232 1.330%