WEATHER
Grains were higher Wednesday with new contract highs in hard red winter wheat and December corn according to Mark Knight with Farmer’s Keeper Financial. Live cattle were also making new highs on record cash.
Randy Martinson with Martinson Ag says the wheat market is adding risk premium tied to weather and global production and geopolitical concerns and could continue to pull corn higher.
The grain and livestock futures saw commodity wide fund buying with a risk on tone to the market according to DuWayne Bosse with Bolt Marketing.
Brad Kooima with Kooima Kooima Varilek says some of the recovery is technical in nature as the June live cattle bounce off of key support and the 38% retracement level around $243.00 last Thursday. However, there are also fundamental reasons for bounce.
Garrett Toay with AgTraderTalk says the HRW wheat market was adding weather premium with forecasts continuing to look hot and dry for the Southern Plains.
Darin Newsom, senior market analyst with Barchart, says wheat is holding weather premium with the deteriorating crop conditions but longer term higher energy prices could spark some inflationary buying in grains.
Soybeans and multi-year highs in the soybean oil market led the grain complex higher on Tuesday according to Mike Minor with Professional Ag Marketing.
Soybeans saw early gains Tuesday with help from a rally in both bean oil and soybean meal and that is supporting corn says Hillari Mason with Pro Farmer. However, several other factors were supporting early strength.
Winter wheat may have already been damaged in January and February due to extreme cold and the lack of snow cover in many areas.
Scott Varilek with Kooima Kooima Varilek says after crashing Thursday on fears of a beef plant strike, cattle are recovering on higher cash.