Good morning and welcome to Markets Desk, your Friday close-of-week rundown on what's moving.
Cotton had a rough go of it heading into the long weekend, with futures falling fifty to seventy-seven points by midday Friday after an early bounce failed to hold. The dollar index held near ninety-nine point two, while crude oil edged up to nearly ninety-nine dollars a barrel, giving little support to the fiber market. Traders will have the weekend to reassess before Tuesday's reopening.
In the grains, corn posted modest penny gains across most front months, with the national cash price ticking up a cent to four dollars and twenty-three and a half cents. Soybeans were softer, trading one to four cents lower on most contracts, though the cash bean price actually firmed slightly to eleven dollars and thirty-four and three quarter cents. Soymeal and soy oil found some footing, keeping the complex from a deeper slide heading into the Memorial Day closure.
And speaking of the holiday, if you're hosting a cookout this weekend, your wallet already knows the news — ground beef is running roughly twenty percent more than last year, making the classic Memorial Day burger noticeably more expensive. That's a direct reflection of persistent food inflation that continues to squeeze household budgets well into the spring.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
