Grain markets are mostly weaker with the exception of soybean oil which has made another round of contract highs overnight. Corn and soybeans are down slightly with wheat a little mixed. On the weather front, Central Brazil received more rain over the weekend, southern Brazil was mostly dry and western Argentina had scattered showers, but the main crop areas were mostly missed. Here in the United States, snow is moving from the Rocky Mountains into western South Dakota. We’ll see how all this plays into today’s market trade. Soybeans on China’s Dalian Exchange were down 0.36% while soybean meal was down 0.41% and corn was down 0.07%.
Mixed to higher trade in equity markets overnight with gains being projected by U.S. futures early Monday morning. Energy markets are firmer overnight with crude oil futures back over $66.00 per barrel. The U.S. Dollar Index is higher overnight but inside last week’s range. Precious metals are higher overnight with silver up over 1.0%.
Cattle futures closed last week on a strong note. October and later live contracts pushed to new highs as optimism seems to be growing for increased demand and tighter supplies later in the year. Some of the strength Friday can be attributed to the winter storm that moved into cattle country over the weekend. This will likely influence trade Monday as heavy snows created further headaches and difficulties for feedlots. This could result in reduced cattle weights and could be the catalyst needed to cause packers to be more aggressive.
Hog futures did not share the same optimism as cattle, but neither did they back off. May and later contracts were able to eke out new contract highs Friday but were not able to close there. The market may begin to see some hesitancy as packers seem to indicate they may not be as aggressive as they have been. Pork cutouts fell on Friday with increasing choppiness in the cash market many times indicating a possible change in trend. However, strong export demand may underpin the market for the time being.
Farm and Ranch Director Jesse Allen has the latest:
