The soybean meal futures (ZMK26) market on Friday was the star performer of the grains complex, posting the largest daily gain in months. May soybean meal soared $14.20 a ton to $331.80, hit a three-week high, and for the week was up $16.60. May soybean (ZSK26) futures on Friday rose 10 1/2 cents to $11.75 3/4, closed at a nearly four-week high close, and for the week were up 12 1/4 cents. May soybean oil (ZLK26) futures on Friday lost 61 points to 67.09 cents and for the week were down 185 points. Spreaders were featured unwinding long bean oil, short meal spreads late last week.
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www.barchart.com The USDA will begin to track U.S. soybean, corn, wheat, and cotton planting progress in its weekly crop progress reports that started in April. Early soybean planting potential in the U.S. is looking favorable for the lower-most Midwest, Delta, and southeastern states. However, weather in the Midwest will be too wet and cool for most fieldwork.
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The scheduled summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in China in mid-May will be a focal point for the soy complex traders.
Bears Controlling Price Action in Corn Market
May corn (ZCK26) futures on Friday fell 3 cents to $4.41 and hit a six-week low. For the week, May corn was down 11 1/4 cents. May corn on Friday saw a technically bearish weekly low close to suggest more chart-based selling pressure from the speculators early this week.
www.barchart.com The sickly winter wheat futures markets likely need to see a recovery to find corn seeing any sustained up-trending price action.
Beneficial Rains in U.S. Winter Wheat Regions Pressure Prices
The winter wheat futures market bears are on the ropes amid the recent price slump that saw May SRW close at a technically bearish weekly low on Friday. Some U.S. wheat regions have received beneficial moisture recently, with more in the forecast.
May soft red winter wheat (ZWK26) on Friday fell 3 1/2 cents to $5.71, hit a five-week low, and for the week was down 27 1/4 cents. May hard red winter (HRW) wheat (KEK26) gained 1/4 cent to $5.90 3/4 and hit a five-week low early on. For the week, May HRW was down 25 cents.
Weather forecasters say wheat fields from northern Texas to central and eastern Kansas are expected to see more rain over the next 10 days. Some partial relief is also expected to the west.
One potential bright spot for the wheat markets has been the selloff in the U.S. dollar index ($DXY), which hit a five-week low Friday. If the greenback continues to depreciate in the coming weeks and months, such would make U.S. wheat more price-competitive on the world market and likely provide a boost to U.S. export sales that have been lagging recently.
Cotton Futures on Surprising Bull Run
May cotton (CTK26) futures on Friday fell 4 points to 73.22 cents on some mild profit taking after hitting a 12-month high early in the session. For the week, May cotton was up 230 points.
www.barchart.com The cotton futures market continues to trek north and to confound the naysayers. Technical buying has been featured as prices are in a solid uptrend on the daily bar chart. Some better risk appetite in the general marketplace this week, as well as a selloff in the U.S. dollar index, prompted better buying interest in cotton, as did a rebound in crude oil (CLK26) prices late this week. Cotton traders next week will continue to monitor the daily price movements in crude oil, the U.S. stock indexes and the U.S. dollar index.
Better U.S.-China trade relations could be a positive element on the U.S. cotton export demand front in the coming months. The meeting of Presidents Trump and Xi in China will also be closely watched by cotton traders.
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On the date of publication, Jim Wyckoff did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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