Welcome to Markets Desk, your end-of-week wrap from the floor.
Soybeans closed out the Friday session on firm footing, holding steady to two and a quarter cents higher as traders headed into the long weekend. July contracts finished up nearly twenty cents on the week, with November adding seventeen, and the national average cash price settling at eleven dollars and thirty-three and a half cents. A solid weekly performance for the oilseed complex.
Turning to the cattle pits, it was a rough week for live cattle despite a modest bounce off session lows on Friday. June futures shed four dollars and sixty cents across the week, with feeders off as much as six dollars and sixty-seven cents at the close. Cash trade ranged from two hundred fifty-eight to two hundred sixty-five dollars nationally, with late sales slipping toward the lower end of that band. Placement numbers coming in above estimates added pressure and kept the bears in control.
On the geopolitical commodity front, a serious warning is circulating about the Strait of Hormuz. Analysts are drawing comparisons to the two thousand eight oil shock, cautioning that if the strait remains closed through the end of August, a severe supply disruption scenario could unfold with meaningful consequences for global crude prices and energy markets broadly.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
