Trading mostly steady, the entire livestock complex looks for direction after Friday's rally and realizes a true market direction may not be established until after the first of the year. March corn is down 2 1/2 cents per bushel and January soybean meal is up $0.20. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 9.34 points and NASDAQ is up 20.62 points.
LIVE CATTLE
Waiting, patiently waiting, live cattle futures trade sideways and cash cattle have yet to set a trend this week. The board continues to hold steady with Friday's bolstered close, but is feeling resistance at $123. December live cattle are up $0.17 at $122.40, February live cattle are down $0.10 at $126.20 and April live cattle are down $0.02 at $127.30. Packers are starting to call around, but no real trade has surfaced. Asking prices are around $122-plus in the South and $195 in the North. Most likely nothing will really take place until sometime Thursday or Friday; but knowing next week is shortened with the holiday, packers most likely won't need as many cattle.
The Fed Cattle Exchange Auction reported a total of 878 head (two lots in Kansas, one lot each in Texas and Nebraska). Asking prices ranged from $119 to $121, only one lot of 268 steers sold in Texas today at $120.
Midday boxed beef prices are lower: choice down $1.63 ($211.18) and select down $1.33 ($202.14) with a movement of 71 loads (35.71 loads of choice, 15.98 loads of select, 4.70 loads of trim and 14.26 loads of ground beef).
FEEDER CATTLE
Traipsing lower, feeder cattle contracts whittle away at Friday's gains. Knowing that little activity will happen over the next couple weeks at sale barns, most feeder buyers and sellers are already checked out for the year-end holidays. January feeder cattle are down $0.22 at $144.92, March feeder cattle are down $0.45 at $145.27 and April feeder cattle are down $0.52 at $147.12.
LEAN HOGS
Support is starting to etch through some of the lean hog complex as nearby contracts are slightly higher, and deferred contracts are only slightly lower. February lean hogs are up $0.25 at $70.10, April lean hogs are steady at $77.40 and March lean hogs are down $0.12 at $84.00.
The projected lean hog index for 12/17/19 is up $0.43 at $60.65, and the actual index for 12/16/19 is confirmed at $60.22, up $0.41. Hog prices on the National Direct Morning Hog Report are higher, up $0.20 with a weighted average of $48.32, ranging from $42.00 to $49.04 on 6,257 head sold and five-day rolling average of $48.31. Pork cutouts total 171.10 loads with 142.51 loads of pork cuts and 28.59 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: down $1.47 at $77.34.
The projected lean hog index for 12/17/19 is up $0.43 at $60.65, and the actual index for 12/16/19 is confirmed at $60.22, up $0.41. Hog prices on the National Direct Morning Hog Report are higher, up $0.20 with a weighted average of $48.32, ranging from $42.00 to $49.04 on 6,257 head sold and five-day rolling average of $48.31. Pork cutouts total 171.10 loads with 142.51 loads of pork cuts and 28.59 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: down $1.47 at $77.34.
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