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WEEKLY COMMODITY HIGHLIGHTS

Nearby Futures	Weekly Change	Friday's Close	Year Ago
Corn	+0.0250	3.5500	3.7600
Soybeans	+0.1825	10.0125	8.8150
Wheat	-0.0600	4.0850	5.0600
Cattle	+3.05	104.20	139.68
Hogs	+4.95	46.80	61.40
Cotton	+1.75	70.82	62.67
Milk	+0.05	14.78	15.47
Crude Oil	-2.15	48.70	45.94

Corn and soybeans were up on the week, driven by strong export demand, particularly for soybeans. The market did trim gains late in the week however, as soybeans retreated from a two-month high set earlier. Continued strength in soybean exports helped drive the market, while strong U.S. yields and indications some export buying has already shifted to South America limited the upside. The South America growing season is off to a decent start, and the U.S. harvest looks to be finished up by mid-month. Wheat futures ended down on the week, but rebounded after sharp losses on Monday. As with corn, the wheat market is in a sideways, choppy trading pattern. Cotton futures rallied but also remain rangebound. The big loser in the grains complex was rice futures, which tumbled below trend line support amid technical selling and ample U.S. supplies. In the energy complex, crude oil futures stumbled on growing skepticism that the previously announced OPEC cut to production will actually occur as promised. Natural gas futures also tumbled, with unusually warm weather across much of the U.S. hurting the heating demand outlook.

In the livestock complex, both cattle and hogs surged amid short-covering and speculative buying. The cattle complex was propelled to start the week by the bullish Oct. 21 Cattle-on-Feed report, and later in the week by a big jump in cash prices. Cash cattle traded in the southern Plains at $104-$105, up $5 from the prior week. Meanwhile a recovering in wholesale beef prices helped preserve very strong packer margins. Both live cattle and feeder cattle futures have confirmed significant bottoms. Lean hog futures also surged to start the week and built on their gains, with stable cash prices underpinning the market. Strong packer margins have spurred packer buying, offsetting record supplies.

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