We knew that a lot of pressure was going to hit Friday's market as cash cattle had yet to trade and everyone was getting anxious. Sometimes markets rally together, and sometimes they split. Friday morning the livestock futures turned sharply lower, but both the cash cattle market and cash hog market decided to trade higher. March corn is down 3 1/2 cents per bushel and March soybean meal is down $4.10. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 181.52 points and NASDAQ is down 42.26 points.
LIVE CATTLE
Patience - it's not a discipline that comes easy to most, but wise cattlemen have its trait mastered. More times that not, when cattlemen are able to hold out and wait until the later part of the week, cash cattle usually sell higher. This week is nothing short of that exact scenario. Given that it's a shortened week, there is little holiday anxiousness that still floats around, and feeders know that packers have committed for the next two weeks, making it hard to wait until the later part of the week to see what trade is going to do. Despite the board trembling lower for two days now, cash cattle prices are starting to surface and for higher money. A light trade is being reported in the South at $124, $2.00 higher than last week's weighted average, and a few deals have been reported in Nebraska at $199, $4.00 higher than last week's weighted average. Some feeders are sticking firm to their early asking prices of $125 plus in the South, and $200 in the North. February live cattle are down $0.60 at $125.17, April live cattle are down $0.32 at $126.15 and June live cattle are down $0.57 at $118.12.
Boxed beef prices are higher: choice up $0.84 ($209.09) and select is up $2.86 ($205.49) with a movement of 75 loads (53.78 loads of choice, 10.06 loads of select, 7.42 loads of trim and 3.96 loads of ground beef).
FEEDER CATTLE
The feeder cattle contracts are avid to trade lower and back firmly away from the $146.00 resistance plane. January feeder cattle are down $0.85 at $143.80, March feeders are down $0.52 at $143.20 and April feeders are down $0.37 at $146.12. Next week could break the trading-lower notion as feeder calf sales are to resume.
LEAN HOGS
Hitting near-limit losses, the lean hog sector endures a tough Friday. February lean hogs are down $3.00 at $68.55, April lean hogs are down $3.00 at $75.00 and May lean hogs are down $2.77 at $81.60. The entire livestock complex takes a punch Friday as contracts can't rally support for anything despite both cash markets being higher.
The projected lean hog index for 01/02/20 is up $0.89 at $58.62. Hog prices are higher on the National Direct Morning Hog Report, up $0.11 with a weighted average of $50.59, ranging from $48.00 to $51.00 on 4,740 head sold and a five-day rolling average of $49.85. Pork cutouts total 191.26 loads with 176.22 loads of pork cuts and 15.04 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: down $0.07, $73.78.
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