Welcome to Markets Desk, here's where things stand as we close out Monday.
Cotton futures surged as much as three hundred four points across the front contracts, with crude oil climbing nearly three dollars to ninety-eight twenty-five lending support to the commodity complex broadly. A stronger dollar offered some headwind, but with only twenty-nine percent of the US crop in the ground, supply uncertainty kept buyers in control.
Shifting to the livestock pits, cattle futures told a more complicated story. June live cattle eked out a fifty-cent gain, but deferred contracts fell as much as one dollar ninety-two, as tariff pressure weighed on the outlook for export demand. Cash trade last week settled between two hundred fifty-six and two hundred sixty dollars, a solid number, but traders are clearly pricing in rougher waters ahead.
And in media, BuzzFeed shares more than doubled in after-hours trade after Byron Allen's family office agreed to take a majority stake in the struggling digital publisher. It's a lifeline, but it also underscores how far the once-celebrated digital media generation has fallen — Vice bankrupt, Vox breaking apart, and BuzzFeed selling at a fraction of its peak valuation.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
