By: NATHAN STUEDLE
GRAINS:
May corn closed down 1 1/2 cents and July corn was down 2 1/4 cents. May soybeans closed up 5 1/2 cents and July soybeans were up 6 cents. May KC wheat closed down 11 cents, May Chicago wheat was down 12 1/4 cents, May Minneapolis wheat was down 11 cents.
For at least a few minutes on Tuesday morning, traders took a break from following the geopolitical whirlwind of the past ten days to review fresh crop supply and demand estimates from USDA, with prices showing little to no reaction as USDA left most forecasts unchanged or very close. The theme of the past 24 hours has been an incredible reversal in crude oil, with NYMEX WTI futures back below $85 per barrel after trading just under $120 per barrel late Sunday evening. Comments from President Trump on Monday that the end of the conflict with Iran may be on the horizon increased selling pressure, but on Tuesday Defense Secretary Hegseth signaled more intense bombing campaigns, and Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi states negotiations with the U.S. were "off the table." The market is anticipating a coordinated release of G7 country oil reserves to stabilize the market, hence Tuesday's price pressure. Meanwhile, price action in equities has been the opposite, with a reversal off Monday lows and the Dow Jones Industrial Average now attempting to post back-to-back higher sessions for the first time in March.
LIVESTOCK:
Following Monday's weaker close, the live cattle complex found some renewed technical support and traded moderately higher into Tuesday's closing bell. Unfortunately, the spot April contract is still trading just below the market's 100-day moving average, which will continue to be an important threshold to monitor as whenever the complex is trading below that price-point a level of bearishness is present throughout the marketplace. Still no cash cattle trade has developed and trade will likely be delayed until Thursday or Friday.
Keeping in alignment with the live cattle complex, the feeder cattle complex also traded moderately higher into Tuesday's close. The spot April feeder cattle contract is currently trading above the market's 100-day moving average -- but could face some technical pressure when the complex comes up against the resistance at the 40-day moving average. Despite the immense pressure the futures complex endured Monday, feeder cattle sales held relatively steady; hopefully the same will be said about sales throughout today.
The lean hog complex traded modestly higher into Tuesday's close and is beginning to rival the market's resistance, which could be problematic for traders later this week if the market's fundamental support isn't as strong as desired. Unfortunately, pork cutout values were down at the day's start, which may not help traders in their desire to continue to see the contracts scale higher.