DTN Closing Grain Comments    04/10 13:50
   Soybean Meal Jumps Friday; Corn, Wheat Selloff Continues to Wrap Week

   Corn futures continued their bearish momentum to close the week with May
futures trading below $4.40 at one point for the first time since Feb. 25.
Soybean futures were supported by a double-digit eruption in soybean meal
futures, credited to long meal/short oil spreading to close the week. Wheat
futures were mixed with Kansas City prices fractionally higher but Chicago
futures lower following Thursday's bearish (and somewhat surprising) stocks
increase in the April WASDE. In outside markets, crude oil futures traded
marginally higher for a second straight session, with bullishness tempered
ahead of weekend negotiations between the U.S. and Iran in Pakistan. Meanwhile,
the Wall Street Journal reported that only eight ships transited the Strait of
Hormuz on Thursday, and only those carrying Iranian cargo, which is surely to
be a point of contention between the U.S. and Iran as ceasefire negotiations
continue. Equity markets were lower after Friday's March Consumer Price Index
reading came in hot at a 3.3% annual increase, the largest in two years and led
of course by the shock to energy markets amid the onset of war in the Middle
East.

Rhett Montgomery
Senior Market Analyst

GENERAL COMMENTS:

   May corn closed down 3 cents and July corn was down 3 3/4 cents. May
soybeans closed up 10 1/2 cents and July soybeans were up 10 1/4 cents. May KC
wheat closed up 1/4 cents, May Chicago wheat was down 3 1/2 cents, May MIAX
Minneapolis wheat was down 6 3/4 cents.