Closing Prices March 15th, 2019 and weekly change.
Grains
May Corn $373.25 up 9.00
May Soybeans $909.25 up 13.50
May Wheat $462.25 up 31.50
May KC Wheat $443.00 up 12.25
Livestock
April Live Cattle $129.100 down .575
April Lean Hogs $68.800 up 8.250
April Feeder Cattle $146.625 down .775
This week saw a huge surge in the grain markets as they rebounding from last weeks decline with potential weather problems facing planting and high water for grain movement potentially causing problems. The hog complex was sharply higher as China came in buying while the cattle complex was mainly steady for the week ended March 15th.
China buys US pork!
With today’s 4.6% uptick of the April lean hog CME contract, bringing it to 68.6 cents per pound, hog futures have risen 8.3% since the news that China had made its largest purchase of US pork in two years came out of the USDA’s weekly export report. Today’s uptick brings hog futures up to its highest level since early January. Meanwhile, live cattle futures rode the hog futures’ momentum higher, finishing trading on the CME up 1.3%, at $1.291 per pound. No real news impacted beef specifically, although the flooding in the Midwest is expected to create a constraint on cattle supply. kirk.maltais@wsj.com
Investment funds extend Short Positions
Investment funds have added 79,488 contracts their short position on corn futures, while dropping 10,646 long contracts, according to the CFTC’s Commitment of Traders data released this afternoon. To a lesser extent, managed money also added to its short position on soybeans by 37,724 contract, while dropping 4,570 long contracts. Market participants say that such activity is unusual for this time of the year, suggesting that big funds wanted to hedge their bets in the event that a US/China trade deal is not signed. kirk.maltais@wsj.com
If you would like to review our current inventory of farms and land for sale in Northwest Missouri click on this link Davidson Real Estate Farms for Sale
And for more information on agricultural commodities and prices the CME Group is a good resource. Feel free to contact any of our team for more information on farm and land values as they relate to the ever changing commodity price changes.
