Corn: December corn futures fell 1 1/4 cents to $4.16 1/2, marking a 12 1/2 cent loss on the week. Corn futures continue to get beat down, posting just two days of corrective buying early in the week before trending lower once again, ending the week near contract lows.
Soybeans: March soybeans rose 10 cents to $11.72 1/4 but lost 11 1/4 cents on the week. March soymeal rallied $6.10 to $345.60 but fell $1.20 week-over-week. March soyoil fell 41 points to 45.59 cents on the day and 167 points on the week. Soybean futures faced short covering into the long weekend following three days of selling.
Wheat: March SRW wheat futures fell 6 1/2 cents to $5.60 1/2, nearer the daily low and hit a 2.5-month low. For the week, March SRW lost 35 3/4 cents. March HRW wheat futures fell 8 1/2 cents to $5.67 1/4, nearer the daily low and hit another contract low today. For the week, March HRW fell 34 1/4 cents. March spring wheat fell 3 1/4 cents to $6.54 3/4 and gave up 29 1/2 cents on the week. It was a dreadful week for the winter wheat futures market bulls, as SRW and HRW saw new for-the-move lows that included technically bearish downside “breakouts” and weekly low closes today.
Cotton: March cotton fell 76 points to 93.87 cents but gathered 209 points on the week. Cotton futures edged lower on profit taking into the long weekend after notching a fresh near-term high in early trade.
Cattle: April live cattle futures rose $1.95 to $187.55, nearer the session high and hit a 3.5-month high. For the week, April live cattle gained 87 1/2 cents. March feeder cattle futures gained $2.925 to $251.025, nearer the daily high, hit a four-month high and on the week rose $3.875. Friday’s solid gains and technically bullish weekly high closes in live and feeder cattle futures set both markets up for follow-through buying from the chart-based speculators early next week.
Hogs: Strong demand continues powering the hog and pork markets. Nearby April futures ended Friday at $85.35, up 22.5 cents on the day and $4.075 higher on the week. Although hog slaughter remains quite high, as exemplified by this week’s 2.559 million head total (up 2.8% from the elevated year-ago total), hog and pork prices posted sustained gains.