Corn: March corn rose 10 1/4 cents to $6.85 1/4--the highest close since $6.92 3/4 on Nov. 2. Corn futures turned up from overnight lows, gaining spillover strength from early gains in crude oil futures, with the wheat complex offering additional support as the session progressed.
Soybeans: March soybeans rose 12 cents to $15.39 3/4, near the session high and hit a seven-month high today. March soybean meal gained $4.90 at $481.20 and nearer the session high. March bean oil closed up 78 points at 63.84 cents and nearer the session high. There appeared to be no fresh fundamental developments today to turn the soybean and meal futures markets around from their early morning price weakness.
Wheat: March SRW rose 8 cents to $7.51 3/4, the highest close since Jan. 3, while March hard red wheat rose 12 cents to $8.55 3/4 and March spring wheat rose 1/4 cent to $9.12 1/2. Wheat futures spent the overnight and early day session moderately lower as rising global production and waning U.S. exports weighed on the market, despite early crude oil strength.
Cotton: March cotton rose 53 points to 82.82 cents and nearer the session high. Trading in cotton futures has been sideways and choppy for over two months.
Cattle: February live cattle futures sank 72.5 cents to $157.00 Tuesday, while most-active March feeder futures tumbled $1.575 to $181.30. News that beef packers had been able to persuade feedyard managers to take $1.00 less last week than they had the week prior likely powered today’s decline in nearby fed cattle futures.
Hogs: Nearby February hog futures slid 20 cents to $78.45 Tuesday, while the deferred contracts posted sizeable gains. Traders seemingly decided the cash market may finally reach a bottom in the near future, so while they continued selling the February contract, they appeared to buy the deferred contracts rather aggressively; the April contract surged 85 cents to $88.125.