Corn futures are 6 to 10 cents lower at midmorning.
- Corn futures are posting losses for the sixth straight session, with general risk-off selling across the ag complex.
- Mato Grosso, Brazil will experience relatively frequent rainfall during the next 10 days, slowing some fieldwork, including safrinha corn planting.
- Today is first notice day for March grain/soy futures, the start of the delivery process. There were no deliveries registered against March corn contracts.
- May corn futures have extended to a fresh for-the-move low, with next support now at $4.69 1/2, while resistance stands at $4.85 3/4.
Soybeans are 9 to 11 cents lower, while soymeal futures are more than $2.00 lower. Soyoil is around 80 points lower.
- Soybean futures are facing technical selling, with lower corn also pressuring prices.
- China took an aggressive stance toward plans for additional U.S. tariffs next week, accusing the U.S. of exerting “tariff pressure and blackmail” and saying tariffs threats created “a serious impact, pressure, coercion and threat to the dialogue.” China vowed to counter tariffs “with all necessary measures.”
- Argentina crop weather will trend too wet in the interior south and some central crop areas during the next 10 days, resulting in some flooding. In the meantime, dryness in far northern parts of the nation may prove to be threatening some minor grain and oilseed production areas.
- USDA reported daily soyoil sales of 20,000 MT to unknown destinations for 2024-25.
- May soybean futures have dropped below the 100-day moving average of $10.31 1/4.
SRW wheat futures are mostly 3 cents lower, with HRW 5 to 9 cents lower and HRS 4 to 5 cents lower.
- SRW wheat futures are lower for the fifth straight session and seven out of the last eight days amid technical selling and spillover pressure from corn and soybeans.
- France’s ag ministry rated the country’s soft wheat crop as 73% good/excellent as of Feb. 24, down one percentage point from the previous week. While up from a 68% rating on this date last year, this was the second lowest in the past five years. Wheat conditions deteriorated between December and February due to excessive wetness, though not to the degree seen last year.
- Parts of Ukraine, Russia’s South Region and western Kazakhstan still have low subsoil moisture, despite some improved topsoil in recent weeks, according to World Weather Inc.
- May SRW futures are trading well below the 100- and 40-day moving averages of $5.87 3/4 and $5.85 1/4. Support is in the $5.60 to $5.50 range.
Live cattle are posting sharp losses while feeders are solidly firmer.
- Nearby live cattle are lower in consolidative trade with buyers hesitant amid lacking cash trade.
- Only light cash cattle trade has occurred so far this week at mostly $2.00 lower prices. With futures signaling short-term lows, feedlots may limit sales if bids remain weak.
- Wholesale beef values declined on Thursday, with Choice falling $1.72 to $311.18, while Select declined $1.11 to $302.13, narrowing the Choice/Select spread to $9.05.
- USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is modifying its sterile fly dispersal strategy to push the New World screwworm (NWS) away from the U.S. and back toward the biological barrier in Panama.
- April live cattle are trading below the 10-day moving average of $194.75. The 20-day average at $196.49 is solid near-term resistance.
Hog futures are firmer at midmorning.
- Nearby lean hogs have rebounded after earlier extending to the lowest level since mid-October.
- The CME lean hog index is down a dime to $89.39 as of Feb. 26, marking losses in four of the past five days.
- The pork cutout value surged $4.30 to $100.96 amid a $26.64 gain in primal bellies. Movement totaled 228.9 loads for the day.
- April lean hogs bounced from the 200-day moving average around $84.23. Initial resistance stands at $85.32.