The latest Market Talks covering Commodities. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires throughout the day.
1515 ET - Lean hog futures settle up 0.8% to $1.03425 a pound on the CME, making it the third positive close for hogs out of the past 4 trading days. A marketing-year low in export sales reported by the USDA for U.S. pork didn't derail the contract. One reason for that is the sentiment that export sales in the second quarter of the year will be strong, says Steiner Consulting Group in a note. "Pork export trend is expected to remain above year ago levels through Q2 despite a slowdown in sales the last two weeks," says the firm. Live cattle futures settled up 0.2% at $2.43475 a pound. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
1501 ET - Crude futures rise for a fourth straight session, with volatility picking up as market hopes fade for a quick negotiated solution to the U.S.-Iran conflict. Iran's president and parliamentary speaker issued near identical statements declaring unity behind the country's supreme leader, suggesting the country will take a hard line toward any talks. "We're definitely seeing a rise in tensions. The market is already in a nervous state and any kind of further escalation is going to be a positive to crude prices, at least near term," says BOK Financial's Dennis Kissler. WTI settles up 3.1% at $95.85 a barrel and Brent rises 3.1% to $105.07.(anthony.harrup@wsj.com)
1452 ET - U.S. natural gas futures retreat, wiping out most of the gains made in the previous six sessions as the EIA reports the first triple-digit storage injection of the season. Inventories increased by 103 Bcf to 2,063 Bcf last week, putting storage 137 Bcf above the five-year average. It was the earliest triple-digit injection on record, Andy Huenfeld of Pinebrook Energy Advisors says in a note. "With some modest heating load lingering across the north, the magnitude of subsequent injections may fall shy of today's number, but healthy inventory growth is expected to continue as the shoulder season progresses." Nymex natural gas settles down 4% at $2.614/mmBtu.(anthony.harrup@wsj.com)
1437 ET - Teck Resources for now has no plans for its interest in the Fourmile project in Nevada, which Barrick Mining estimates is one of this century's most significant gold finds and would be a key asset its plans to separately list its North American operations. As about any plans to monetize the royalty held on Fourmile, Teck Chief Executive Jonathan Price tells analysts the miner has no specific plans right now. "We recognize that that's a valuable asset that we have here in the portfolio," he says. Price says there remains a lot of technical work still be done around the Fourmile development, which will further inform the value of the royalty that his company holds. (robb.stewart@wsj.com)
1335 ET - Keurig Dr Pepper says some of the headwinds hurting its coffee business should ease over the rest of the year. Pressures from higher green coffee costs and tariffs, as well as a decline in coffee pod shipments, should ease slightly in the current quarter and moderate further in the back half of the year as costs come down and short-term trade inventory dynamics normalize, finance chief Anthony DiSilvestro says during a call with analysts. "Cost inflation will meaningfully ease in the second half, and our innovation and commercial programming will begin to kick in, and we should see some top line improvement," he says during a call with analysts. "Based on current coffee prices, this could be a tailwind for us going into 2027." (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)
1322 ET - Oil futures continue higher with no end in sight to the shipping halt through the Strait of Hormuz, as the U.S. blocks ships in and out of Iran and Iran impedes passage of other vessels. As the supply disruption continues, concerns start to increase about the impact on demand. "Depending when this ends, it's going to take months to recover," says Angie Gildea, global head of oil and gas at KPMG. "If this continues to play into June, we're going to start seeing some significant demand destruction starting at the end of the second quarter and into the third quarter, and I think consumers will be hit much harder." WTI is up 3.2% at $95.89 a barrel and Brent is up 2.9% at $104.88.(anthony.harrup@wsj.com)
1318 ET - Corn and soybean futures are down in afternoon trading, with most-active CBOT corn down 0.1% and soybeans down 0.5%. While the weather outlook in wheat-growing areas is turning dryer and moving those futures up, rainfall on the eastern side of the Corn Belt is making the soil moisture for farmers in the midst of planting especially strong. "The trade sees moisture as friendly this early in the season, and the farmers [have a] proven ability to get the crop planted, regardless of how tight the planting window could be," says Brady Huck of EmpowerAg Trading. Huck adds that quick moves could come in grains in the coming weeks. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
1250 ET - The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange says that it sees Argentina's wheat crop in 2026/27 declining by 3% to around 6.5 million hectares -- or roughly 16.1 million acres. The reduction in supply coming with signs of excessive dryness in U.S. winter wheat growing areas is giving CBOT wheat futures a boost. News of reduced Argentine acres comes after the USDA maintained its outlook for 27.9 million metric tons of production for 2025/26 -- more than 50% larger than the previous year's output, according to the USDA's WASDE report released earlier this month. CBOT wheat is up 1.5% today, while corn is up 0.1% and soybeans fall 0.5%. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
1052 ET - Natural gas in underground storage in the U.S. rose by 103 billion cubic feet last week to 2,063 Bcf, increasing the inventory surplus over the five-year average to 137 Bcf from 98 Bcf the previous week, the EIA reports. Storage for the prior week was revised down by 10 Bcf. Last week's injection was above the 94 Bcf average estimate in a Wall Street Journal survey of analysts, and bigger than the 64 Bcf five-year average injection for the week. Nymex natural gas is down 4.4% at $2.603/mmBtu.(anthony.harrup@wsj.com)
1017 ET - Dry weather in the U.S. Plains is giving CBOT wheat futures support. The U.S. Drought Monitor map shows the spread of extreme drought in Nebraska, with patches spreading in Oklahoma and Texas. Dry weather, along with geopolitical tensions that appear to be ratcheting up, are keeping wheat futures up today, with the most-active contract up 0.3%. But if these concerns keep wheat positive today remains to be seen. "I remind us all that it's still a grass," says Gary Sandlund of Futures International in a note - highlighting that winter wheat is a resilient crop. Corn falls 0.1% and soybeans are down 0.3%. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
1015 ET - Live cattle futures are down in early trading, following six consecutive lower closes for the most-active contract, according to data from FactSet. Cattle futures appear to have found seasonal highs, says AgResource in a note. This after the contract set an all-time record high of $2.51 a pound earlier this month. The firm places its outlook for price support at $2.40 a pound. Most-active live cattle futures are down 0.7% in morning trade, while most-active lean hogs are down 0.4%. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
0956 ET - Nearly 500,000 farmers in the U.S. have been distributed $9.6 billion in bridge assistance payments by the USDA, according to data compiled by the American Farm Bureau Federation. The AFBF says that the deadline for farmers to apply for assistance was on April 17, but new strains to farmer's budgets coming from the supply chain disruption in the Middle East means that farmers need more assistance, says the AFBF. "All nine principal row crops are forecasted to have negative returns even after accounting for federal assistance," says the AFBF. Corn has accounted for 42% of the assistance doled out, while soybeans accounted for 24%. Farmers in Iowa were the biggest recipient of assistance, totaling $857 million. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 23, 2026 16:15 ET (20:15 GMT)
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