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April 7, 2025

In the News

Be sure to check you e-mail following the close of the "Best of NAMA ceremony at 6:15pm the Wednesday for the list of winners! Please stop by the Agri Marketing exhibit during the event to say hi.





WEEKLY COMMODITY HIGHLIGHTS

Nearby
Futures
Weekly
Change
Friday's
Close
Year
Ago
Corn+0.07004.60254.3525
Soybeans-0.46009.770011.800
Wheat+0.0755.29005.5625
Cattle-6.19202.63181.47
Hogs+0.7087.4088.30
Cotton-3.5463.3687.14
Milk-0.1617.0115.48
Crude Oil-7.3761.9986.59
It was a very tumultuous week for the markets, driven mainly by U.S. trade policy and President Trump's "Liberation Day" on tariffs. Trump's Wednesday announcement included blanket 10% tariffs on countries around the world, and tariffs much higher on many countries, particularly China and across Asia. A 34% tariff on Chinese products is in addition to an existing 20% tariff, and China quickly announced retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. Soybeans and cotton in particular were pressured by the renewed trade war with China, and cotton tumbled to a new five-year low. Corn and wheat held up relatively well, in part because Trump's tariff announcement surprisingly did not include any new tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Wheat also had support during the week from Monday's Prospective Plantings report, which showed lower winter wheat and spring wheat acreage than the trade was expecting. That report reaffirmed expectations of a big shift away from soybeans and to corn, a shift that could get even bigger given subsequent market action.

The tariff announcement caused the biggest stock market selloff since the start of the pandemic on Thursday, and stocks continued to plunge on Friday. Worries about a global recession, and larger-than-expected OPEC production estimates for May, helped send crude oil prices plunging. Livestock markets initially held up well in the face of the worries about the economy, but live cattle futures succumbed on Friday, plunging with further pressure from softer Plains cash prices and technical selling. Lean hog futures were extremely choppy for most of the week until Friday, when most contracts except for nearby April plunged. China's new tariffs could completely shut U.S. pork out of the market, but the lack of escalation with Mexico helped prop up hopes that pork exports to that country will not be hurt.

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