GRAINS:
In what could be described as a much-needed correction, the grain and soy markets, with the exception of bean oil, set back early Thursday. Both December corn and December Chicago wheat fell to test the 50-day moving average breakout areas following a week of solid gains. Bean oil, which had been down for three straight days, was the lone exception, trading higher for the day. Soybeans rebuffed early weakness to finish higher at the end. December corn closed down 2 cents per bushel at $4.11 3/4 and March corn was down 1 3/4 cents at $4.29 1/4. November soybeans closed up 2 cents at $10.24 1/2 and January soybeans were up 2 1/4 cents at $10.42 1/2. December KC wheat closed down 4 1/4 cents at $5.89 3/4, December Chicago wheat was down 6 cents at $5.75 3/4 and December Minneapolis wheat was up 1/4 cent at $6.24 3/4.
LIVESTOCK:
There are plenty of reasons why the live cattle complex traded lower Thursday, as external pressure continues to loom over the commodity complex and as traders are growing tired of waiting for the cash cattle market to trade. With the live cattle complex trading lower, it didn’t take traders long to decide the feeder cattle market’s direction was going to be lower through Thursday’s trade as well. But what continues to be frustrating about the way in which traders handle the feeder cattle complex is the degree in which they send the contracts lower when pressure builds. The lean hog complex couldn’t shake Thursday’s pressure as it traded lower into the day’s close. But with both cash prices and pork cutout values lower at midday, and traders aware of the external pressure hovering over the commodity complex, there was virtually no chance the market would be able to overcome the day’s pressure.
