GENERAL COMMENTS:
Welcoming a soft correction, livestock markets closed lower. Hog prices are lower on the National Direct Afternoon Hog Report, down $0.94 with a weighted average of $56.86. December corn is down 3 3/4 cents per bushel and December soybean meal is up $1.70. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 255.68 points and NASDAQ is down 67.31 points. From Friday to Friday livestock futures scored the following changes: October live cattle up $1.03, December live cattle up $1.47; October feeder cattle down $0.60, November feeder cattle down $1.40; December lean hogs down $1.65 and February lean hogs up $0.43
LIVE CATTLE:
Live cattle prices tumbled through the day and closed moderately lower: down $0.40 to $1.92. December live cattle closed $0.75 lower at $113.62. Thursday's Cargill explosion presents some questions for the beef industry. Though the reports claim that the explosion was minor, and at first many expected the plant to be fully up and running on Friday, but the plant is now taking extra precautions and hoping to be up and running early next week. The plant didn't slaughter cattle Thursday, nor Friday, and will likely not be processing cattle on Monday. It makes one worry that the market implications of not having two plants running (the Tyson plant and now this Cargill plant) will back up fat cattle supplies and greatly affect current-ness.
Cash cattle traded was reported in the North at $173 for dressed cattle ($1.00 higher than last week), and Southern live cattle traded for $108.00 which was steady to $1.00 lower than the bulk of last week's trade.
Closing boxed beef prices are mixed: choice down $0.07 ($218.04) and select up $0.44 ($193.04) with a boxed beef movement of 97 loads (45.66 loads of choice, 21.58 loads of select, 13.24 loads of trim and 16.46 loads of ground beef).
MONDAY'S CASH CATTLE CALL: $1.00 to $2.00 lower. With two packing plants down, cash prices will have to fight hard to get higher prices next week.
FEEDER CATTLE:
Like the other livestock markets, feeder cattle dabbled lower and lower throughout the day but were able to recover some ground at closing. November feeder cattle closed down $1.47 at $142.85. All other feeder markets closed lower as well, down $0.70 to $1.40.
On an estimated run of 6,641 head (up 4,926 head from the previous week) Billings Livestock Commission in Billings, Montana sold most feeders higher on Thursday. Yearling heifers offered the best test (900-949 pounds) and were called steady to $2.00 higher. Steer calves weighing 450 to 599 pounds sold most steady to $5.00 higher, steer calves over 600 pounds have strong undertones. Heifer calves weighing 500 to 599 pounds sold mostly $4.00 to $5.00 higher. Quality was called average to attractive, and multiple load lots sold. The best demand this week was for light weight calves under 475 pounds or heavyweight calves over 600 pounds, which buyers thought could finish against the April board. Many order buyers and farmer feeders were in the stands this week creating very active market activity. The CME feeder cattle index 10/17/19: $145.40, up $0.45.
LEAN HOGS:
The lean hog market was one that made you scratch your head at least twice, refresh your browser to see if the headlines were real and then gawk in awe about how the futures market reacted to such news. Early Friday morning reports came out saying that pork exports had skyrocketed and then the Department of Agriculture later clarified that the amounts included unreported sales from prior weeks. USDA said that new sales of pork totaled 292,161 metric tons for the week ending 10/10/19. The total is still the largest amount of new sales ever reported since the report began including pork sales in 2013.
Regardless of what exports were, the futures board wasn't buying into any of it. Lean hog markets fell like the rest of the livestock complex and posted somewhat higher during the closing hour Friday. December lean hogs are down $0.20 at $67.95 and the rest of the complex closed mildly lower ranging from $0.17 to $0.70 lower: except for December 2020 which closed up $0.27 and February 2021 up $0.15. Pork cutouts totaled 244.31 loads with 209.89 loads of pork cuts and 34.41 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: up $0.75 at $77.03. The CME lean hog index 10/16/19: $64.90, up $0.96.
MONDAY'S CASH HOG CALL: $1.00 to $2.00 lower. Mondays don't typically bring springing cash prices and with uncertainly about what exports are real and not real, the cash market will probably have a mundane Monday.
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