Grain & Soybean Futures Fall on Demand Worries

Hog futures were mixed on thursday, after notching a fresh three-month high during the previous session. That market, too, could be underpinned by supply concerns owing to the winter storms, analysts said.

February hog futures slid 7 to 65.30, April hogs declined 77 to 69.70

Cattle futures narrowly eased, pressured by profit-taking after prices rallied to the highest levels in three weeks during the previous session.

February live-cattle futures slid 30 to $135, Cattle futures for April fell 72 to $134, Most-active feeder-cattle futures for March declined 50 to $159

Grain and soybean futures fell on Thursday, pressured by worries about demand for domestic crops.

Soybeans dropped to a more-than-three-week low, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Chinese buyers had canceled purchases of 395,000 metric tons of soybeans for delivery during the 2015-16 crop year. Wheat fell to a one-week low, weighed down by ample world grain stockpiles and worries about lackluster demand for U.S. supplies. Corn slid to a nearly-two week low, buffeted by falling prices for wheat and soybeans, as well as a recent bout of farmer selling.

March Soybean sank 15 1/4 to $8.67, March Chicago wheat decreased 4 1/4 to $4.72, March KC wheat fell 2 ¾ to $4.64, and March corn shed 3 3/4 to $3.65,

Cotton futures gained on Thursday with the March contract jumping 50 to 62.36, and the May contract gaining 46 to 61.91.

Gold closed near unchanged on Thursday as investors refrained from placing big bets on precious metals in light of conflicting signals from the Federal Reserve and mixed U.S. economic data. April gold fell 20 cents to $1,116.10, February silver closed at $14.22, down 23 cents.

Oil prices rose to a three-week high on hopes that Russia and OPEC would cooperate on production cuts. March crude gained 92 cents to $33.22 a barrel, Gasoline futures settled up 3.33 cents at $1.07 a gallon, and Diesel futures rose a fraction to $1.03 a gallon.

Natural-gas prices rose for a seventh straight session Thursday on a larger-than-expected storage withdrawal. March Natural-gas settled up 2.5 cents, to $2.18.

Wall Street gained on Thursday as a blockbuster quarterly report from Facebook drove tech shares higher and a bounce in oil prices propped up the beleaguered energy sector.  The Dow gained 125 to close at 16,069, the Nasdaq closed at 4,506, up 38 and the S&P 500 gained 10 to 1,893