Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange hog futures settled higher on Friday, with support from bargain buying and short-covering heading into the weekend, said traders. CME June hog futures led gainers after investors bought that contract and simultaneously sold deferred months in a trading strategy known as bull spreads, they said. June hogs closed […] Read more

U.S. livestock: Bargain buying, short-covering lift CME hogs

Deere sues Precision Planting, claiming patent infringement
Reuters — U.S. farm equipment maker Deere and Co. on Friday sued Precision Planting and Agco Corp., accusing them of infringing on 12 of its patents. In filings to the U.S. district court in Delaware, Deere alleged that products made or sold by Precision Planting, including vSet seed meters along with SpeedTube products, infringed on […] Read more

U.S. livestock: Profit-taking, trade war fears upend CME hogs
Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange hog futures closed lower on Thursday, rocked by profit-taking amid worries that pork could suffer from retaliatory tariffs against the U.S., traders said. June hogs closed 0.7 cents/lb. lower at 76.625 cents (all figures US$). July ended 2.075 cents lower at 78.05 cents. Mexico threatened to reciprocate with […] Read more

U.S. livestock: CME live cattle limit up on short-covering
Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle on Wednesday settled up its three-cent-per-pound daily price limit, driven by short-covering and fund buying, traders said. They said CME live cattle garnered more support from higher wholesale beef values and future’s discount to early-week prices for market-ready, or cash, cattle. June and August live cattle […] Read more

Top court in Egypt permits wheat with trace ergot
Cairo | Reuters — Egypt’s top administrative court has ruled that the country should accept wheat with marginal levels of the common grain fungus ergot, a local newspapers said on Sunday, freezing a lower court order to ban the fungus entirely which had vexed traders. Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer, baffled grain markets when […] Read more

Freeland to visit Washington this week for NAFTA talks
Ottawa | Reuters — Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland will visit Washington this week in another bid to help unblock talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement, a spokesman said on Monday. Freeland will be in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday, said spokesman Adam Austen. The U.S., Mexico and Canada are struggling to […] Read more
U.S. alarmed by strike on ship delivering wheat to Yemen
Washington | Reuters — The United States said on Friday it was “alarmed” by a Houthi missile strike on a Turkish vessel carrying wheat to Yemen this month and urged the Shi’ite group to work with the United Nations to alleviate Yemenis’ suffering. The Turkish-flagged Ince Inebolu bulk carrier was damaged by an explosion on […] Read more

OIE declares Brazil free of foot-and-mouth, with vaccination
Paris | Reuters — The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) declared Brazil free of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) with vaccination on Thursday, opening new export prospects for the world’s largest beef exporter. The OIE already considered most of Brazil to be free of FMD with vaccination. The declaration, which the government had been expecting since […] Read more

CME amends feeder cattle futures, options rules
Chicago | Reuters — The Chicago Mercantile Exchange will amend the feeder cattle futures contract rule to include cattle identified in the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports as fancy, thin, fleshy, gaunt or full in the calculation of CME’s feeder cattle index price, the exchange said in a release Tuesday. The amendment change will be […] Read more

JBS beats estimates, refinances bank debt
Sao Paulo | Reuters — Brazil’s JBS SA, the world’s largest meatpacking company, beat analysts’ estimates for the first quarter and closed a deal to refinance the bulk of its bank debt on Monday. JBS’ net income for the first quarter, 506 million reais (C$179.45 million), was 48 per cent above analysts’ estimates, with higher […] Read more