Grain prices close strong. Monday, March 21, 2022

May corn futures were up 14½¢; May soybeans closed up 23¢. May Chicago wheat closed up 55½¢. May Kansas City wheat closed up 42¾, and May Minneapolis wheat closed up 28½¢.

Livestock prices closed the day mixed with live cattle 45¢ lower, feeder cattle 90¢ lower, and lean hogs up $1.22 per hundred.

Crude oil is up $7.55 and the Dow futures are 340 points lower. Crude oil had a big surge higher today as Europe considers a ban on Russian oil. Europe is pretty dependent upon Russian oil, so where will they get the energy needed?

As Russia tries to take over a key city in Ukraine, traders today fear this could disrupt exports out of the Black Sea region for several weeks and supported the wheat markets today. The market still remains very sensitive to anything dealing with the Russia/Ukraine situation. We still do not have a timeline for a cease-fire or a peace agreement, so grain prices will remain very volatile.

December corn futures today posted a new contract high price at $6.70 and posted a new high close for the contract. We are starting to see some premium being added to the December corn contract as concerns over Ukraine’s ability to grow a crop this year linger. Ukraine’s biggest hurdle will be to get access to diesel fuel to plant the crop. Logistics of seed and fertilizer will add to the problems as well.

Market volatility is not going away anytime soon.

Currently, we have May corn up 20¢ to 21¢, May soybeans up 34¢ to 38¢, Chicago May wheat up 65¢ to 66¢, Kansas City May wheat up 78¢ to 80¢, and Minneapolis May wheat up 50¢ to 51¢.

Livestock prices are mixed with live cattle 10¢ to 30¢ higher, feeder cattle $1.40 to $1.50 lower, and lean hogs up $1.75 to $3.75 per hundred.

Crude oil is up $6.10 this morning, and the Dow futures are 150 points lower.

Rising concerns over Ukraine and its ability to produce a crop this year has money flow coming into U.S. grains this morning. Ukraine is a significant world exporter of corn and wheat. If they are unable to produce a crop this year or even a partial crop, this just adds more pressure on the U.S. and South America to produce large crops back-to-back.

Weekly export inspections were released at 10 a.m. CT this morning, and we saw an uptick in corn this week exporting just over 57 million bushels. Soybean exports were just over 20 million bushel for the week, down about 9 million bushels from the previous week. Wheat exports came in at just over 12 million bushels, which was very close to what we shipped out last week.

A close in May corn futures today above $7.62½ would be positive and that would give us a new high close. December corn futures are trading at contract highs today. The key will be where we do close.

May corn is up 9¢ while May soybeans are up 19¢. Wheat prices are also stronger with Chicago wheat up 35¢, Kansas City wheat up 34¢, and Minneapolis wheat up 18¢.

Livestock prices started the week 40¢ to 50¢ higher in live cattle; lean hogs were up 30¢ to 60¢. We continue to hear hog herd contraction across much of the world supporting prices. Live cattle seem to have a good supply of cattle here in the near term but overall numbers look low for later this summer into this fall. This should keep the back end of the market well supported.

Crude oil is up $4.10 this morning, and the stock market is slightly lower to start off the week.

Rains down in South America – mainly Argentina – were disappointing over the weekend. The forecast calls for some good rains again this week; we will see if they actually materialize.

The war in Ukraine continues to rage on. There were a few stories that a possible cease-fire might be in the works, but we have not heard anything official yet. A cease-fire or possible peace agreement would be negative to grain prices but until that actually happens, the market will continue to stay very volatile.

In the U.S., the Southern Wheat Plains are projected to get some much-needed moisture for the winter wheat area. Growing conditions for winter wheat are off to a terrible start this season and really need some moisture to help improve conditions.

We will see the export inspection report out at 10:00 a.m. CT today. Typically, this is not a market mover of a report, but it can add support or pressure to the current markets depending on how we are trading.

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Tags: prices, животноводство, soybeans, wheat, futures, live cattle, feeder cattle, lean hogs, corn