In the News

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WEEKLY COMMODITY HIGHLIGHTS

Nearby Futures	Weekly Change	Friday's Close	Year Ago
Corn	0.0050	3.5125	3.6125
Soybeans	0.0900	9.7075	10.0350
Wheat	0.0375	4.3075	4.2625
Cattle	-2.30	119.25	115.08
Hogs	-0.35	71.43	64.88
Cotton	-0.62	78.01	73.78
Milk	-0.33	13.44	16.57
Crude Oil	1.02	61.44	53.76

The corn futures market basically slept through the holidays amid an absence of significant fundamental news with the nearby Mar. contract charting a weekly trading range of just 4 1/2 cents last week, 1/4 cent wider than the previous week's range. The deep freeze across the U.S. Midwest contributed to the slowdown, limiting cash grain movement. Both corn and soybean futures did find support again last week from concerns about dry conditions in Argentina's growing belt, this time in the southern part of the belt, primarily the top producing province of Buenos Aires. Worries that some intended soybean area might not even get planted were a supportive issue. Soybean futures continued to struggle, though, with a sluggish U.S. export campaign. Wheat futures rebounded on support from concerns that subzero weather did damage to unprotected wheat acreage in the central/southern Plains, but abundant world wheat supplies and worries about export competition capped gains. Cotton futures showed technical signs of topping out last week with nearby Mar. futures charting a large bearish key reversal on Friday.

Livestock futures were initially supported last week by the cold weather across the central U.S., which affected movement of hogs to market and stressed cattle in Plains feedlots. Live cattle futures collapsed on Friday to sharp losses on technical selling after reversing lower on Thursday as cash prices traded slightly lower than a week earlier. Concerns about mounting supplies of cattle in U.S. feedlots helped drive the sharp sell-off. Lean hog futures generally edged higher through the week as cash hog prices rose on support from reduced hog runs amid strong packer demand. Gains in backend futures contract continued to be limited by bull spreading activity and large winter/spring farrowing intentions, which suggests summer and fall supplies will again be up significantly from a year earlier.

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