Grain prices end the day higher | Friday, March 25, 2022

May corn was up 5¾¢ with December corn up 1½ cents. May soybean futures were 9½¢ higher with November beans up 3¾¢. May Chicago wheat closed up 16½¢. May Kansas City wheat closed up 15¾¢, and May Minneapolis wheat closed up 21½¢.

Livestock prices closed the day mixed. Live cattle futures finished the day 80¢ higher in the April contract. March feeder cattle closed down 35¢, and April lean hog futures closed the day $4.70 higher.

Crude oil is up 85¢ and the Dow futures are 5 points higher.

As the war continues in Ukraine, planting has also started. How many acres will get planted in Ukraine? Odds are we will likely see 25% to 50% of the acres not planted. This is nothing new, but I feel this is somewhat priced into the markets.

The U.S. continues to see demand for old-crop soybeans. At a time of the year when South America should be taking over as the main supplier to the rest of the world, this could take U.S. carryover stocks lower in future USDA reports if the demand continues.

USDA Planting Intentions and Quarterly Stocks report will be released on Thursday, March 31, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. CT.

• READ MORE: Gauging 2022 planting intentions

Keep a close eye on weather in South America. Weather forecasts are calling for some much-needed rain this week for much of South America followed by a week of drier weather. The extended forecast through the month of April does look wet. If this happens, it would be very beneficial to the South American corn crop. 

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10:45 a.m.

At midday May corn futures are up 2¢ to 3¢ with December corn futures down 1¢. May soybean futures are 4¢ to 5¢ higher with November futures up 2¢ to 3¢. May Chicago wheat is 2¢ lower, May Kansas City wheat is 3¢ lower, and May Minneapolis is 5¢ lower.

Livestock prices are mixed with live cattle 45¢ higher, feeder cattle are 37¢ lower, and lean hogs up $1.90 per hundred.

Crude oil is down 50¢ this morning and the Dow futures are 30 points lower.

A choppy but rather tight trading range today in the grain markets. China bought more new-crop soybeans from the U.S. providing some support. However, the market feels a bit like it is looking for a direction. There just is not a lot of new news in the market today, and that is giving us a quiet, choppy trade.

Japan has expanded the U.S. safeguard thus opening them up to buy more U.S. beef. This is a surprise move and should lend support to the live cattle market, especially later this summer and fall. Lean hogs are on fire this morning surging higher with better demand.

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May corn futures are 3½¢ higher. May soybean futures are 3¢ higher. May Chicago wheat is 9¢ higher. May Kansas City wheat futures are 7¢ higher, and May Minneapolis wheat futures are 4¢ higher.

Livestock prices are higher this morning. Live cattle are 30¢ to 50¢ higher, feeder cattle are 50¢ to 60¢ higher, and lean hog futures are $1.00 to $1.20 higher.

Crude oil is down $2.15 this morning and the stock market is up 72 points to start off Friday’s trade.

A rather choppy, quiet overnight session. The market feels like traders are sitting on the sidelines a bit as they await the USDA’s spring planting and stocks estimates on March 31. Fundamentals still look friendly overall but for a bull market to keep going, we must feed it with new bullish information daily. We seem to have a lot priced in for the week.

China bought 132,000 metric tons of U.S. soybeans this morning for the 2021/22 marketing year. We continue to see demand for U.S. soybeans this time of year when South America should be taking over most of that business.

The weekly slaughter on live cattle feels a bit low this week. Packers really did not have to pay up this week and still found a good supply of cattle to slaughter. Lean hogs continue to have a solid weekly slaughter and are on pace of what they slaughtered last week. Cash prices in hogs seem to be moving higher.

Weather in South America looks to bring some much needed rain to Argentina and Brazil in the next seven days. The week two forecast as of this time looks to flip back to dry. This past week we saw mild temperatures and some scattered rains in Argentina. This should help stabilize the crop in South America but more rain is needed. Argentina is just starting corn harvest and, so far, the early yields seem to be a bit disappointing.

Editor’s Note: Cory Bratland is a chief grain strategist with Kluis Commodity Advisors.