By: NATHAN STUEDLE
GRAINS:
March corn closed up 3 1/2 cents and May corn was up 3 1/4 cents. March soybeans closed up 7 3/4 cents and May soybeans were up 8 1/4 cents. March KC wheat closed up 9 1/2 cents, March Chicago wheat was up 12 3/4 cents, March Minneapolis wheat was up 2 1/4 cents.
Wheat futures again led the U.S. grain markets higher on Wednesday, putting in a double-digit move higher in Kansas City markets to the highest close in over two months. Corn and soybean futures were also higher, with corn futures catching an early burst of momentum following pro-E15 remarks by President Trump during his speech in Iowa on Tuesday, but eventually faded from daily highs amid a general lack of news to sustain prices. In outside markets, the U.S. dollar recovered after hitting four-year lows on Tuesday, but remains down sharply over the past week. Crude oil and other energy markets were firm as well and added a layer of support to ag markets at midweek.
LIVESTOCK:
The live cattle complex wasn't confident at the day's initial start, but the market had longer timeframe to trade, the complex grew stronger. The contracts pushed past the market's resistance and trending higher into the day's closing bell. It's somewhat questionable where traders were getting the additional support from this morning, as boxed beef prices were mixed and we've yet to see any trade in the fed cash cattle market. But maybe traders' confidence lies in the fact that they believe fed cash cattle prices will trade higher later this week and that Friday's Cattle Inventory report will be bullish. I hope all those claims come to fruit. At this point, no cash cattle trade has developed and both bids and asking prices remain elusive. Boxed beef prices are mixed: choice up $1.14 ($369.25) and select down $1.45 ($363.73) with a movement of 50 loads (31.60 loads of choice, 4.20 loads of select, 5.22 loads of trim and 8.48 loads of ground beef).
The feeder cattle complex was also trading higher into Wednesday's closing bell as the market finds it comforting to see the live cattle contracts trading in a positive manner. As long as the live cattle contracts maintain their upward momentum, it's likely that the feeder cattle contracts will as well.
The lean hog contracts were back to trading lower as the market seems to be facing some technical exhaustion after a significant rally over the last month. Thankfully, pork cutout values were still trading higher, so traders should find some support there, but for the meantime, the market's direction is lower.