Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving.
Corn led the grain complex sharply higher to open the week, with most contracts closing between fourteen and a half and twenty-one and a quarter cents in the green. The catalyst was clarity around the US-China trade framework, which revived export optimism and sent the national cash corn average back up to four dollars thirty-seven and a half.
On the geopolitical front, Vladimir Putin is heading to Beijing just days after Donald Trump's visit, putting China's diplomatic balancing act squarely in the spotlight. Beijing enters that summit from a position of strength, while Moscow is largely seeking reassurance that Chinese alignment hasn't quietly shifted toward Washington following recent trade progress between the US and China.
In the livestock pits, cattle futures gave ground across the board Monday, with live cattle contracts finishing down as much as a dollar fifteen and feeder cattle off up to three dollars fifteen on the session. Cash trade in the South held mostly in the two hundred sixty to two hundred sixty-five range last week, but futures couldn't hold their footing as the week opened, reflecting broader pressure across the complex.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
