Market Closes - March 23, 2020
Posted on Mar 23, 2020Corn 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%
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