Friday's Closing Grain and Livestock Futures
Dec. corn closed at $4.43 and 1/4, up 4 cents
Nov. soybeans closed at $12.95, up 6 and 3/4 cents
Oct. soybean meal closed at $431.30, up $3.50
Oct. soybean oil closed at 39.99, down 2 points
Dec. wheat closed at $6.87, down 2 and 1/4 cents
Oct. live cattle closed at $128.05, up 62 cents
Oct. lean hogs closed at $91.85, up 55 cents
Nov. crude oil closed at $103.84, up 53 cents
Dec. cotton closed at 87.18, down 26 points
Oct. Class III milk closed at $18.14, down 1 cent
Oct. gold closed at $1,309.70, down $7.70
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 15,072.58, up 76.10 points
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Market News and ReCap
Soybeans were higher on short covering and technical buying. There was rain and cooler temperatures in the weekend forecast and the early part of the coming week looks good for harvest. Rain in some key growing areas of Brazil should help with planting there. Soybean meal was up and oil was down on the adjustment of product spreads. Taiwan’s Breakfast Soybean Procurement Association is in the market for up 120,000 tons of beans, 40,000 to 60,000 of that U.S. origin and/or 40,000 to 60,000 tons of Brazilian origin.
Corn was higher on technical buying and short covering. Corn’s also watching the weather with rain and snow delaying harvest in some key growing areas. At this point, the fundamentals are bearish with an expected record U.S. crop and some signs of slowing export demand. South Korea’s Major Feedmill Group issued, and then retracted, a tender for 140,000 tons of corn, citing unfavorable prices. Ethanol was firm.
The wheat complex was mixed in end of the week consolidation trade. The complex is watching planting delays in parts of Ukraine and Russia, along with damage from a recent cold snap in Argentina. Canada’s wheat crop is projected at 33.026 million tons, which would be up around 6 million on the year. India issued offers for 160,000 tons of wheat, but bids were well below the minimum asking price of $300 per ton.
There was a light cattle trade in parts of the North on Friday with dressed prices of 198.00, roughly 1.50 lower than last week’s weighted average. The country in general remained very quiet following the light to moderate movement on Thursday. Without the assistance of Market News and Mandatory reporting it is difficult to assess the adequacy of country movement. Needless to say the job is even tougher given the lack of slaughter information. The guess is the weekly kill totaled close to the previous week, probably somewhere between 625,000 and 630,000 head.
Private sources suggest the box beef trade had a steady to weak undertone with light movement.
Live cattle contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange settled 35 to 75 points higher as buyer support slowly moved into the complex on Friday. The move from trading in a single digit range on either side of unchanged to moderate gains helped to firm buyer support by the end of the week. Very little additional information was available to the market, so most traders moved back to the basics. October settled .60 higher at 128.05 and December was up .65 at 132.42.
Feeder cattle ended the session 35 to 60 points higher with light support despite the overall lack of trade volume and sense of stability in most markets. The firm support in the live cattle complex helped to offset the modest gains in corn prices and limited additional market pressure at the end of the week. October settled .35 higher at 164.45 and November was up .32 at 165.95.
Feeder cattle receipts at Missouri Auctions this week totaled 22,969 head. Compared to last week feeder feeders sold mostly steady to 3.00 higher, although light weight calves especially those South of Interstate 44 had several spots of 5.00 to 10.00 higher and occasional those that had all the work done and overwhelming amounts of quality seeing no limits. Supply was light to moderate. Demand was good to very good. Feeder steers medium and large 1 averaging 629 pounds brought 168.23 per hundredweight. 833 pound steers averaged 157.57. 627 pound heifers traded at 157.02. 816 pound heifers averaged 145.13.
Lean hogs settled unchanged to 85 points higher. Lean futures broke out of the narrow trading range seen through the opening as traders ended the week. There seems to be even more uncertainty about longer term direction, but many traders and cash market watchers appeared to be treading water so to speak while the government is shut down. The lack of market news is severely limiting trade and price transparency, which is creating widespread concerns through the market according to DTN analysts. October settled .55 higher at 91.85, and December was up .85 at 87.62.
Barrows and gilts in the Missouri direct trade closed steady to 2.00 lower from 85.00 to 86.00. At Peoria Illinois barrows and gilts were steady from 60.00 to 62.00 on a live basis. Zumbrota, Minnesota was steady at 60, and Dorchester, Wisconsin closed steady at 70.00.
Ron Plain at the University of Missouri states in his weekly report that packers are looking for ways to price hogs should the government report shutdown continue into this week. Beginning Monday, Tyson is planning to start pricing hogs off the Urner-Berry price sheet.
Assuming that today’s hog kill will total around 420,000 followed by a Saturday slaughter effort close to 55,000, the weekly kill should total close to 2,200,000 head, still 6%-7% smaller than 2012.
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