Grain and Livestock See Risk Off Selling Tuesday on Trade Uncertainty, Outside Markets

Grain and livestock futures closed mostly lower on Tuesday, except feeder cattle.

John Heinberg with Total Farm Marketing says grain and livestock both saw risk off selling tied to trade uncertainty, bearish outside markets and recessionary fears.

The melt down in the financial sector as a result of global recessionary fears spilled over into the ag markets.

The U.S. also turned up the heat on the trade battle doubling tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum.

That trade uncertainty had some fund traders exiting grain and livestock futures to sit on the sidelines.

He says with the uneventful March WASDE some of the corn bulls that were looking for confirmation of stronger demand were also disappointed.

USDA made no changes to U.S. corn and soybean ending stocks or South American new crop production.

However, USDA did lower global corn ending stocks by 1.4 MMT in part due to a 3 MMT cut in old crop Brazilian corn production.

Global soybean ending stocks were lowered by 3 MMT as well with China imports raised 2 MMT.

Wheat saw a 25 million bu. to U.S. ending stocks and a 2.5 MMT increase in world carryover.

Live cattle futures saw pressure from the lower stock market after being able to shake that bearish influence off on Monday working in higher cash trade.

Heinberg says both cattle and hogs could see some fund long liquidation if the stock market continues to slide.

The one caveat is if cash cattle trade is higher again this week that could result in a rebound in the futures.

Lean hog futures also ran into chart resistance around the 50% retracement level in the April contract and saw some profit taking.