Oliver Sloup spoke with Farm Journal’s Michelle Rook on Friday afternoon to share his thoughts on this week’s price action in the grain and livestock markets.
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It was another down day for corn and soybeans while wheat managed to tack on gains. At the close December corn settled 2 cents lower to 395, that’s a new closing low and was down 8 ¼ cents for the week. November soybean futures settled the day 5 ¾ cents lower to 1002 ½, that was 24 ¾ cents lower for the week. December Chicago wheat was 4 ¼ cents higher at the close settling at 565 ¾, that put prices 3 /2 cents higher for the week.
Thursday’s weekly export sales report was strong for new crop soybeans, coming in at 985k metric tons, this was above the top end of expectations. There was more positive news on the export front this morning with a string of flash sales. The USDA reported a sale of 132k metric tons of soybeans for delivery to China for the 204/2025 marketing year. Another flash sale of 212k metric tons was for delivery to unknown destinations with 50k of that for old crop and 162k for new crop.
Looking ahead to next week, all eyes will be on Monday’s WASDE report. The average soybean yield estimate comes in at 52.6 bushels per acre with total production estimates at 4.473 billion bushels. Acreage estimates are at 85.116 million.
Livestock futures were all higher in Friday’s trade, after getting hit hard in the first half of the week. At the close October live cattle were 3.12 higher to settle at 181.15, that was down 92 cents for the week. September feeder cattle were 4.17 higher in Friday’s trade to settle at 241.60, that was still 6.55 lower on the week. On the snout side, October futures tacked on 35 cents to settle at 73.97, that was down 2.60 for the week.
Friday’s morning boxed beef report was firm with choice cuts up 1.43 to 313.55 and select cuts 84 cents higher to 298.87. Yesterday’s 5-area average price for live steers was reported at 192.51. Thursday’s slaughter was reported at 121k head which puts the week to date total at 484k, 10k more than last week and about 7k less than the same period last year.
Yesterday’s weekly export sales report was disappointing at 10k metric tons, that was down 43% from the previous week and 27% from the prior 4-week average. South korea was the primary buyer accounting ofr about 4k metric tons, followed by Japan and Mexico. Aside from demand, traders and other market participants will continue to keep a close eye on economic data as it could give clues to how well the consumer is or isn’t doing.