AgDay TV Markets Now: Jim McCormick Explains the Commodity Wide Selloff on Thursday

AgDay TV Markets Now: Jim McCormick, AgMarket.Net, discusses why grain and livestock futures had a bad day.

Grains ended lower on Thursday even soybeans with some risk off selling pressure tied to a rally in the U.S. dollar.

Soybeans staged an early double-digit rally with May making a high just above $12.17 and then ran into chart resistance.

There was also some farmer selling or hedge pressure according to Jim McCormick, AgMarket.Net. “Once the May got over $12 it attracted some farmer selling. We get the feeling farmers are selling soybeans and holding corn a little more tight fisted.”

However, the lower wheat market also drug down beans. AgroConsult also pegged soybeans in Brazil at 152.2 mmt which was well above Conab.

Wheat was under selling pressure the entire session as China cancelled 1 million metric tons of Australian wheat, after cancellations of French and U.S. wheat earlier.

McCormick says, “We are speculating that China is getting a better deal from Putin and the Russians. Russia has a lot of wheat left over from this last year’s crop and this year’s crop looks like it could be a record. So, Russia has a lot of wheat to sell and who knows there may even be a barter deal going on.”

Russian wheat fell below $200/metric ton which has undercut world prices and weekly export sales were a marketing year low. A stronger U.S. dollar index was also a headwind for wheat and the entire ag sector reacting to the PPI.

The lower wheat market also weighed on corn, but corn also hit chart resistance says McCormick. Corn ignored strong weekly exports at 50.5 million bushes, and Mexico’s tender of nearly 4 million bushels.

Live cattle made new highs for the move before seeing profit taking and hedge pressure and ending with triple digit losses.

Pressure also came with risk off selling and a marketing year low on exports. Light cash in the north at $300, up $6 and live at $188 to $190, up $3 to $5 failed to support futures.

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