The latest Market Talks covering Commodities. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires throughout the day.
1947 GMT - U.S. natural gas futures end the week lower as the market enters the shoulder season where summer cooling demand tapers off before early-season heating demand starts to kick in. Last week's 40 Bcf storage injection was bigger than expected, but smaller than average, leaving inventories 148 Bcf above the five-year average. "Elevated production and falling power demand point to larger injections ahead, leaving firm LNG demand as the main counterweight to the seasonal loosening," Gelber & Associates says in a note. Nymex front-month gas settles down 0.1% at $2.831/mmBtu for a 4.8% loss on the week.(anthony.harrup@wsj.com)
1939 GMT - Oil futures slip but post weekly gains on escalating conflict in the Middle East, with Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis stepping up attacks on Saudi facilities and making territorial advances to strengthen their position near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. "Although much of today's price pullback appears attributable to talk of Middle East countries discussing a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and some bearish demand aspects to today's monthly IEA report, the larger negative driver in our opinion, is simply a deserved market correction following this week's dramatic gains," Ritterbusch & Asosciates says in a note. WTI settles down 2.4% at $100.05 a barrel for a 9.4% weekly gain. Brent falls 2.8% to $104.61 and is up 8.7% on the week. (anthony.harrup@wsj.com)
1928 GMT - Cattle slaughters for the week are estimated to fall back 12% from this time last year, according to data compiled by the Hightower Report. The firm projects slaughters for the week ending Sept. 12 to total 505,000 head. That would be 11.9% lower than slaughters at this time last year. It's also nearly 100,000 head lower than the 5-year average for this week. However, the firm notes, cattle weights on average are 1.3% heavier than this time last year, at 889 pounds. Live cattle futures settled up 1.1% to $2.221 a pound, while lean hogs dropped 2.1% to 72.775 cents a pound. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
1820 GMT - Gold futures hold steady as a pullback in oil prices helps offset the impact of an inflation report that increased expectations for a Fed interest-rate rise next week. Front-month gold settles little changed on the day in New York at $4,366.20 a troy ounce, and is down 1.4% for the week. Gold and silver remain within a range of strong support, says Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital, and if the Fed does raise interest rates next week "it's symbolic since the bond market had already tightened." Silver settles up 0.4% at $64.554 a troy ounce, down 2.3% from a week ago. (anthony.harrup@wsj.com)
1749 GMT - U.S. drillers added one oil rig this week to 450, or 34 more than were active a year ago, according to data from oil services company Baker Hughes. "U.S. crude oil production has rebounded to just under 14 million barrels per day, tied with the previous record high set in April," Pavel Molchanov of Raymond James says in a note. The 450,000 b/d increase from a year ago, "boosted by the rig count's rise" is still only about 5% of the oil offline in the Persian Gulf, he says. "Until the Strait of Hormuz reopens, the unprecedented production deficit will need to be cushioned by two main factors: inventory drawdowns and demand destruction." Rigs directed at natural gas rose by 2 to 132. (anthony.harrup@wsj.com)
1729 GMT - Cotton futures on the Intercontinental Exchange are down 2.1% following the USDA's release of its September WASDE report, which showed reduced outlooks for U.S. cotton production and yields. The USDA now projects U.S. cotton production at 13.2 million 480-pound bales for the 2026/27 marketing year, down from 13.61 million last month. Average yield was reduced by 3% to 776 pounds an acre. "Regionally, yields and production are lower in the Delta and Southwest while slightly higher in the Southeast and West," says the USDA in its report. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
1720 GMT - The USDA reduced its export projections for Russian and Ukrainian wheat crops for the 2026/27 marketing year in its September WASDE report. The agency reduced its outlook for Russian exports by 3 million metric tons, to 43 million tons. It also cut its outlook for Ukrainian wheat exports by 1 million tons, to 12.5 million tons. The USDA also reduced its outlook for Russian corn exports by 100,000 tons, to 3.7 million tons. The cuts to exports are seen as reflecting the additional supply chain strain coming from an escalated conflict between Russia and Ukraine, says Mike Castle of StoneX in a note. Wheat is down 2.5%, while corn falls 0.5% and soybeans drop 2.2%. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
1709 GMT - The WASDE report showed some changes to U.S. corn and soybean production and yields, which sparked some selling of futures in afternoon trading. But the lasting impact of the WASDE isn't expected to linger long in the minds of grain traders, says the Hightower Report in a note. "Without a surprise in this report, the market will quickly return to trading other fundamentals such as South American weather and China demand, which has been very strong this week," says the firm in a note, in reference to soybean market conditions. Rallying in corn futures is also not expected to rally much on the report's data. CBOT corn is now down 0.5%, while soybeans fall 2.4% and wheat sheds 2.4%. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
1707 GMT - CME livestock futures are little changed following the release of the USDA's WASDE report. Live cattle futures remain up for the day, at 1.5% to $2.229 a pound. Meanwhile, lean hog futures remain down 1.7% to 73.075 cents a pound. The USDA projected lower production for both beef and pork in 2026, with the USDA adding in a note that its forecast includes the potential effects of new duties on Canadian goods. For beef, a slower pace of fed cattle marketings in the third quarter of 2026 is bogging down production figures, while pork output was reduced "on a slower expected pace of slaughter and lighter dressed weights." (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
1643 GMT - The USDA projected higher production and yields for U.S. soybeans versus last month's WASDE report, running counter to what analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal anticipated. But traders see some positive notes in the USDA's domestic projections, reducing ending stocks by 10 million bushels to 310 million bushels. This reduction comes due to higher expected soybean exports, which were lifted by 25 million bushels to 1.69 billion bushels. "A larger soybean crop was more than absorbed by higher exports," says AgResource in a note following the WASDE's release. CBOT soybean futures are down 2.1%, while corn is up 0.1% and wheat falls 2.1%. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
1639 GMT - The IEA's latest estimate for a 2.5 million barrels-a-day drop in oil demand this year because of the U.S.-Iran conflict puts losses on a par with declines in 2008/09 combined during the global financial crisis, says Raymond James investment strategy analyst Pavel Molchanov. "In developed economies, oil demand destruction involves mostly mild effects, such as suspended airline routes. In lower-income countries, more painful impacts--factory closures, fuel rationing--are visible." The IEA sees demand barely recovering pre-conflict levels in 2027, "and a portion of demand destruction may be permanent," he adds.(anthony.harrup@wsj.com)
1634 GMT - Canada's retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports will primarily squeeze corporate profit margins rather thank drive up consumer inflation, according to Oxford Economics in a report. Senior Economist Michael Davenport says that input-output modeling shows Canadian firms bearing the brunt of the price hikes across finished goods. "Machinery and equipment prices and construction costs will increase," he says, noting that they will affect finished products such as telecommunication equipment, freight and industrial machinery, as well as key inputs like steel, aluminum and timber. However, he says that the ultimate effect on demand prices will depend "on the degree to which firms, households, and governments substitute away from U.S. imports."
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