COMMODITIES : Wild Week Eases to Close Amid Conflicting Weather Forecasts
Conflicting weather forecasts for the drought-stricken Farm Belt brought a wild week of grain trading to a fairly subdued close Friday on the Chicago Board of Trade. Soybeans posted strong gains, but corn and wheat were mixed.
On other markets, pork bellies surged the limit for daily trading, precious metals were slightly higher, energy futures were mixed and stock index futures advanced.
Forecasts for next week’s weather were so mixed that “every time I pick up the telephone I hear a different one,” said John Frazier, Chicago-based grain specialist with Balfour Maclaine Corp.
Temperatures soared above 100 degrees Friday in Chicago, and some private meteorologists were calling for dry conditions and searing temperatures to linger in the Midwest through Thursday.
But other private forecasters expected cooler temperatures and scattered showers to move into the region this weekend.
“We’re in the hands of the weather and the weatherman,” Frazier said.
Ted Mao, grain specialist with Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc. in New York, agreed: “People are not sure we’re not going to get another rain front in the middle of next week, and the markets are very, very nervous.”
Friday’s mixed close ended a week marked by wide swings in prices. Soybeans for July delivery ranged during the week from $8.56 to $10.20 a bushel, and July corn ranged from $2.86 to $3.50 a bushel.
Wheat settled 4 cents lower to 5 cents higher, with the contract for delivery in July at $3.84 a bushel; corn was 7 cents lower to 1.75 cents higher, with July at $3.335 a bushel; oats were 1 cent to 7.50 cents higher, with July at $3.115 a bushel, and soybeans were 7.5 cents to 32 cents higher, with July at $9.945 a bushel.
Frozen pork belly futures continued their recovery from recent lows near 32 cents a pound amid higher cash prices and retail featuring of bacon, analysts said.
Friday’s gain of 2 cents a pound--the maximum allowed--on contracts for July and August delivery marked the fourth straight day of the pork belly rally on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Live cattle were 0.15 cent lower to 0.85 cent higher, with August at 64.27 cents a pound; feeder cattle were 0.15 cent to 0.80 cent higher, with August at 74.75 cents a pound; hogs were 0.25 cent lower to 0.75 cent higher, with July at 46.27 cents a pound, and frozen pork bellies were 0.68 cent to 2 cents higher, with July at 37.30 cents a pound.
The soaring dollar kept a lid on the precious metals market despite the possibility that Peruvian silver miners will launch a nationwide strike Monday.
Gold settled $1 to $1.40 higher, with August at $441.30 an ounce; silver was 3 cents higher across the board, with July at $7.31 an ounce.
Energy futures finished mixed on the New York Mercantile Exchange in light pre-weekend trading that brokers attributed largely to internal market influences.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil was 16 cents lower to 10 cents higher, with August at $14.86 a barrel; heating oil was 0.21 cent to 0.45 cent higher, with August at 41.12 cents a gallon, and unleaded gasoline was 0.91 cent lower to 0.01 cent higher, with August at 49.73 cents a gallon.
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