Thursday Midday Livestock Market Summary - Cattle Futures Show No Change of Trend

General Comments

Cattle trade has been somewhat lethargic Thursday, trading on both sides of the market with prices mixed. Traders are receiving little to no direction from cash trade in the country. As usual, buyers and sellers are holding out to the last minute to see who will blink first. Boxed beef continues to perform well, but support from that is limited as futures are sideways and actually near the bottom of the trading range. Hogs have been swinging about in a $2.00 range with unwinding of spreads. December corn is up 5 cents. The DOW is up 195 points with the NASDAQ up 80 points.

LIVE CATTLE:

Cattle futures have difficulty generating aggressive buyer interest and favor hanging toward the bottom of the trading range. Feeder cattle futures are a little better, but remain sideways and back to levels of a week ago. Bids are $110 to $113 with offers at $115. Boxed beef cutouts at midday are higher. Choice is $1.00 higher with select up $0.48 on 58 loads reported (31 loads of choice, 7 loads of select, 13 loads of trimmings, and 7 loads of ground beef).

FEEDER CATTLE:

Futures have extended their gains of Wednesday with the exception of front-month November. Despite these price movements, futures remain in a downtrend. With live cattle futures in a sideways trend with a bias toward the bottom of the range, feeder futures have little incentive to change direction.

LEAN HOGS:

The market has been on a roller coaster with unwinding of spreads taking place between December and later months. The tweet from President Donald Trump about his phone discussion with the Chinese president signaled some progress on the trade dispute. This affected soybeans and some other markets, but had little impact on hogs. Cash prices are lower on the National Daily Direct hog report. The weighted average price was $57.29, down $1.16 per cwt with a range of $52.00 to $58.50 on 3.416 head reported sold. The National Pork Plant report showed 163 loads selling. Carcass values added $1.34 per cwt at $75.85. Lean hog index for 10/30 is $63.90, down $0.03 with a projected two-day index of $64.07, up $0.17.

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