(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

U.S. livestock: Early-week cash prices buoy CME live cattle

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle closed higher on Wednesday, lifted by initial prices for market-ready, or cash, cattle and short-covering after recent market losses, traders said. Thinly traded June futures, which will expire on Friday, led advances. Some investors bought that contract and simultaneously sold deferred months in a trading strategy […] Read more


The Big River Resources ethanol plant at West Burlington, Iowa, about 120 km southwest of Davenport. (Steven Vaughn photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

U.S. EPA proposes higher 2019 biofuels mandate

Reuters — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday proposed setting a blending mandate of 19.88 billion gallons for 2019 under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), three per cent higher from this year’s and in line with expectations. The agency also said it is considering a number of measures to bring some transparency to the […] Read more




(JBSs.infoinvest.com.br)

Ex-JBS chair Batista charged with corruption

Brasilia | Reuters — Brazilian federal prosecutors on Monday charged JBS SA shareholder Joesley Batista, another senior executive of the meatpacking company and a former federal prosecutor with corruption. The charges against Batista, former executive Francisco Assis and former federal prosecutor Marcello Miller were filed before a federal court in Brasilia, prosecutors said in a […] Read more


(Mark Wilson photo courtesy Louis Dreyfus Co.)

Argentina’s grain exports halt in strike against Macri

Buenos Aires | Argentina — A strike called by Argentina’s largest trade union federation in protest over President Mauricio Macri’s market-friendly economic policies brought the country to a standstill on Monday, freezing grains exports and halting banking and public transit. The CGT umbrella labour union demanded wage hikes to keep up with inflation rates running […] Read more

(CMEGroup.com)

U.S. livestock: Bargain buying pares some CME hogs’ losses

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange hog futures closed moderately higher on Thursday, with support from bargain buying and short-covering that pared some recent market losses amid U.S. trade worries, said analysts. U.S. hog farmers, still reeling from higher retaliatory tariffs on pork imposed by China in early April, are bracing for another round […] Read more