Good afternoon and welcome to Markets Desk.
In the grain pits, soybeans and corn both closed Wednesday in the red. Soybeans slipped as much as five and a half cents as traders sold into what had been Chinese demand optimism, with the national cash price settling near eleven dollars forty-five. Corn gave back three to nearly nine cents after last week's sharp forty-cent rally ran out of steam.
Turning to soft commodities, cotton futures also retreated Wednesday, down as many as seventy-three points in what traders are calling a routine correction. Notably, crude oil surged more than four dollars on the session after the United States carried out strikes on Iran and President Trump declared the ceasefire over — outside pressure that did little to lift cotton off its lows.
And on the monetary policy front, Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh drew attention Wednesday for a single unhedged line buried in the June policy minutes: "The Committee will deliver price stability." No qualifiers, no caveats. One prominent Fed economist called it the strongest signal in the entire document — a rare moment of unconditional language from a central bank that typically leaves itself every exit it can find.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
