Corn and wheat futures were sharply lower on Friday but have been able to find their footing now that we have turned the calendar over and started a new week, month, and quarter.
Last week we indicated that end of quarter positioning may have played a role in the choppy trade environment and today seemed to indicate that. In the first trading day of the new quarter we saw new crop December corn recover all of Friday’s losses and then some, settling 12 cents higher to 488 ¾.Â
New crop November soybean futures were under heavy pressure in the early morning trade but managed to fight back and finish the day in positive territory, up 2 cents to 1277. We’ve been leaning on the bearish side of soybeans for the better part of the last month but today’s price action was noteworthy and has us looking for a retest of the technically and psychologically significant $13.00 level.
December Chicago wheat futures finished the day 23 ¼ cents higher to settle at 564 ¾, regaining a large chunk of Friday’s steep selloff.
On the livestock side of things it was a positive day for cattle although off the intraday highs. At the close December live cattle were 42 cents higher to settle at 188.35, roughly 1.50 off the highs of the day. November feeder cattle were 80 cents higher to settle at 255.70 while the defferds showed more strength with January and March settling 1.30 and 1.45 higher.
On the snout side, it was a lack luster day with Pressure across the front month futures. December, the most actively traded contract was 2.27 lower to settle at 69.50.