Because the Ukraine is an important exporter of corn and wheat, and has bushels needing shipped now, the Russian takeover of the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine may force importers to seek alternate supplies from exporters like the United States. This potential change in global supply-demand balances encouraged heavy buying overnight in CBOT futures.  However, futures generally sold off after 5 am.  While this led to negative closes in soybean and soybean meal futures, corn and wheat futures posted strong gains with heavy buying in the final minutes of trading into 1:15 pm CST.

Despite very strong boxed beef markets today, traders sold the April LC contract down 85 cents.  Last week’s cash trade was above $150.  Traders have at least a month to worry if cash and futures are coming together. In boxed beef, Choice was up 3.79 at 229.12 and Select up 4.69 at 227.81/cwt.  As CBOT futures weakened, feeder cattle futures erased their morning losses to close near unchanged.

Lean Hog futures closed higher on strong cash fundamentals and bullish momentum.  Pork cutouts closed the day over a dollar/cwt higher.

Corn May +6 464; Jly +7 475; Dec +5 476 (471-84) Bean May -5 1409; Jly -4 1381; Nov +2 1171 (1164-79) Meal May -7 450; Oct -3 364 Oil +59 4238 Wheat May +29 631; Jly +27 636 (616-48) KC +26 700;  MGE +16 672 Oats +20 482 Rice -25 1538

LC Apr -85 14412; Jun +70 13490; Oct +50 13625 FC Mar +7 17177; Apr unch 17307; Aug unch 17557 LH Apr +182 10867; Jun +52 11275; Oct -15 9385 Milk Mar -23 2192; Apr -49 2036

US$ +.4%

Dow -154 16168 SP -14 1846 NAS -31 4277 Tran -45 7303 VIX +2.00 16.00  +14.3%

WTI +233 10492 Brent +206 1113 Gas +4 302 NG -12 449 HO +6.5 308 Eth unch 229

Gold +28 1350 Slvr +20 2140

2-yr -.01 0.31% 5-yr -.05 1.46% 10yr -.05 2.60% 30yr -.03 3.555%

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