In the News

Weekly Commodity

Highlights

Courtesy of

Brock Associates

www.brockreport.com

Nearby Futures

Weekly change

Friday's

Close

Year

Ago

Corn

-.66 ½

4.98 ½

3.41

Soybeans

-1.58 ¾

11.99

8.55

Wheat

-.28 ¾

7.65 ¼

6.79

Cattle

+1.45

101.48

91.38

Hogs

+7.40

89.88

74.83

Cotton

-2.06

67.25

61.11

Weekly Comments: A new wave of commodity fund liquidation, driven primarily by renewed weakness in crude oil prices and a surge in the value of the U.S. dollar, was the story of the week across most commodity markets including the agricultural markets. Fund liquidation, combined with technical selling drove corn and soybean futures sharply lower, with the soybean market feeling added pressure from expectations for slowing Chinese demand. Wheat futures found some support from strong world export demand and long wheat/short corn short covering, but in the end were caught up in the liquidation and lost further ground in extremely volatile trade. The second biggest story in the agricultural markets was the continued streak of record high pork prices, which boosted front-end lean hog futures to strong gains. Nearby live cattle futures also posted solid gains on support from stronger Plains cash cattle markets. However, both deferred lean hog futures and live cattle futures came under substantial pressure from fund liquidation as spurred largely by lower corn prices and the stronger dollar. Cotton futures were also swept lower again by the general wave of fund liquidation of commodity positions.