Monday Closing Livestock Market Update

GENERAL COMMENTS

Action in cattle feeding country was limited to the distribution of new showlists. Overall, the total fed offering looked close to unchanged with last week. Although assumed to be firm compared with last week, asking prices were poorly defined. According to the closing report, the national hog base is .57 lower ($81.00-87.50, weighted average $85.82). The corn market finished a penny plus lower, perhaps stabilizing a bit following last week's significant volatility. Wall Street closed mixed with the Dow off 8 points and the Nasdaq up 1.

LIVE CATTLE

Spot August closed 85 points lower, checked by profit-taking, long liquidation, and cash uncertainty. Yet the balance of the market closed moderately higher, up 5 to 36. Beef cut-outs: mixed, up $0.39 (select, $195.81) to off $0.30 (choice, $209.05) with moderate demand and moderate-to-heavy offerings (66 loads of choice cuts, 26 loads of select cuts, 19 loads of trimmings, 15 loads of ground beef).

TUESDAY'S CASH CATTLE CALL: Steady. Tuesday should be typically quiet with both cattle buyers and sellers probably content to sit on their hand until midweek or later.

FEEDER CATTLE

Feeder futures closed moderately lower at the conclusion of a lackluster session. On an estimated run of 5,900 head (compared with 5,329 last week and 5,163 a year earlier), Oklahoma City sold feeder steers and heifers $4 to $8 higher than last week. A light test of steer and heifer calves was tagged $4 to $10 higher. CME cash feeder index: 07/14: 148.61, off 1.13.

LEAN HOGS

Lean hog issues closed mixed, up 87 points to off 35. Spot July expired at 92.40, $11.63 above new spot August. With August hitting center stage, it will be interesting to see how long it can ignore the large premium of the cash index (or vice versa). Carcass value closed lower with stronger fresh cuts overshadowing weakness in processing items. Pork cut-out: $103.67, off $2.15. CME cash lean index for 07/13: 92.78, off .06 (DTN Projected lean index for 07/14: 92.50, off .28).

TUESDAY'S CASH HOG CALL: Steady. The cash hog trade seems likely to open basically steady when business resumes on Tuesday.