After the Bell | April 5, 2023

Corn: May corn futures closed a penny lower after trading as much as 7 1/4 cents lower this morning. Corn futures saw action on both sides of unchanged today as bullish fundamental news fights bearish spillover from wheat and a higher U.S. dollar index today.

Soybeans: May soybean futures fell 6 1/2 cents at $15.11. May soybean meal dropped $6.80 to $450.60. May bean oil closed down 52 points at 55.22 cents. Prices closed nearer their session lows today.  The soybean and meal futures saw corrective pullbacks and profit-taking from the shorter-term traders today, following recent good gains that still leave the bulls in near-term technical control.

Wheat: May SRW fell 9 1/2 cents to $6.82, ending the session below the 10- and 20-day moving averages, while May HRW dropped 11 cents to $8.61 1/2. May spring wheat plummeted 16 cents to $8.73 2/4, falling to pre-report prices. The wheat complex succumbed to improving weather prospects along with mild strength in the U.S. dollar following a notable selloff since early March.

Cotton: May cotton futures rose 2 points to settle at 81.07 cents. Cotton futures pared losses today after the recent three-day slide following last Friday’s larger-than-expected acreage forecast from USDA.

Cattle: June live cattle rose 7 1/2 cents at $160.30. May feeder cattle closed down 17 1/2 cents at $202.10. Prices closed nearer the session lows. It was not a bad day for the live and feeder cattle futures bulls as they were able to stabilize their markets after stronger losses posted on Monday and Tuesday.

Hogs: Expiring April hog futures climbed $1.175 to $73.40 Wednesday, while most-active June futures tumbled $1.20 to $88.375. April futures, which expire on Monday, April 17 and will cash-settle against that day’s official quote for the CME lean hog index, rallied strongly Wednesday and in doing so ended the day rather close to Tuesday’s preliminary quote.