Grain and cattle markets are higher early Thursday, while hogs are lower.
Mark Knight, Farmers Keeper Financial, says grains are seeing a technical bounce off support areas.
May soybeans held the $10.00 area on the charts and May corn held $4.50 which he says are good signs.
Grains are also supported by strong weekly exports with corn at 38.1 million bu., soybeans at 27.6 million bu. and wheat at 28.8 million bu.
Knight says wheat exports were the second highest for the marketing year and show that the lower prices and the pull back in the dollar are stimulating demand.
Cooler heads are also prevailing by traders in regards to tariffs.
The market was concerned with EU tariffs on U.S. ag products of 25% on Wednesday as well as Canada’s threat of tariffs on U.S. ethanol imports.
Knight says funds have been selling across the grain complex and have gone short in soybeans, extended their short position in wheat and liquidated a chunk of their big long position in corn.
He is concerned that funds will continue to shed positions in corn on tariff concerns with the April 2 deadline looming on tariffs for Mexico, which is the top export customer for the U.S.
That also coincides with the March 31 USDA Prospective Plantings Report and Knight is fearful the corn acreage could be well above the 94 million acres USDA printed at the Ag Outlook Forum.
Cattle extended gains from Thursday early in the session on technical momentum and as tariffs are positive for that market, slowing imports from Canada and other countries.
This has also pushed the feeder cattle futures and the market is hitting all time highs again today.
The cattle have held up well in light of the 10% correction in the stock market, but Knight says it will be interesting to see if a deeper correction starts to weigh on the cattle to a larger degree.
Lean hogs are lower early with a marketing year low on weekly exports at 20,300 metric tons, a $3 drop in cutouts on Wednesday and some profit taking.
