Technically Speaking

For 13 straight days, November soybeans closed lower -- before Friday that is. On Friday, the market overcame more early selling to close up sharply to finish last week.

A technical look at weekly soybean, soybean meal and bean oil prices.

Corn futures have been under serious selling pressure over the last several weeks, with December corn now having plunged 46 cents per bushel just since the last week in February. December, early on Monday, fell to within a dime of what should be solid support below.

A technical look at energy prices shows contracts starting to firm for the first time since last summer.

While U.S. old-crop soybean futures remain in a solid uptrend, and have held up very well even in the face of corn and wheat weakness, there are some potential bearish signs brewing.

Last week's consumer and producer price reports reminded traders more rate hikes are likely ahead, a simmering bearish concern for commodity prices.

While obviously a sharp discount to spot March corn futures, new-crop December is within 6 to 7 cents of major down-trend resistance, with more substantial interest just above that.

Last week's cattle inventory report from USDA gave cattle futures a boost, while lean hog prices showed signs of finding support from the recent bearish woes.

The corn market has been up and down, but still in a minor uptrend, as traders determine how much Argentine corn could actually be lost.

A bearish turn in March soybean meal gets our attention again this week, along with recent moves in soybean oil and KC wheat.

The soybean meal market has been rallying in the past few months, setting new contract highs along the way, and overcoming some bearish chart signals.

A technical look at the March contracts of corn, ethanol and gasoline.

The soybean market has been in a bullish trend, with March futures having rallied nearly $1.50 per bushel since mid-October. Driven by the best crushing margins in history, and first a dynamic rally in soybean oil, followed by an even more impressive and meteoric rise in soybean...

A technical look at the February contracts of three U.S. energy prices.

The January soybean pattern below is a symmetrical triangle, with the market undecided on which way this pattern will evolve. Typically, the pattern is a continuation pattern in the prevailing trend, which in this case would be inclined to resolve to the upside. However, there are...

We are seeing mixed trends in livestock charts.

As wheat has melted down and corn export sales remain dismal, corn futures appear to have convincingly broken out to the downside after trading in a 30-cent range in the past 16 days. The next target for March appears to be the open chart gap at $6.38 with solid support...

A technical look at January energy futures.

A technical look at the March contracts of the top three U.S. wheats.

Soybean oil, along with other major vA smaller-than-expected gain in October consumer prices sent specs fleeing from the U.S. dollar and back into stocks, at least temporarily -- encouraging short-term news for U.S. crop prices.