Talk about a Monday ... morning prices shot lower as the day opened to a new week, and then around the noon hour spiked higher and even pushed live cattle contracts to triple-digit gains. May corn is down 9 cents per bushel and May soybean meal is up $0.10. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 1,861.51 points and NASDAQ is down 586.74 points.
LIVE CATTLE
Live cattle contracts are trading viciously on the board Monday morning. When the day opened contracts wasted no time sinking to lower prices and sitting heavily towards the market's limits. As time progresses and the clock is close to striking the noon hour, April 2020 through April 2021 are all trading higher, upwards of $1.62 higher to $3.53 higher. Volatile markets are dangerous, and it's most evident that with the vast swings from near limit lows to triple-digit gains that the marketplace is unsettled. April live cattle contracts are up $3.30 at $98.60, June live cattle are up $2.10 at $91.82 and August live cattle are up $2.60 at $91.45.
One of the obvious factors that helped encourage the board to trade higher was the sharp increase in boxed beef demand. Both choice and select cuts pushed prices over $12.00. Some chatter of trade in Nebraska is surfacing at $170, and in Texas at $105. Live asking prices are around $115.
Boxed beef prices are sharply higher: choice up $12.37 ($220.51) and select up $12.01 ($213.99) with a movement of 199 loads (133.03 loads of choice, 19.68 loads of select, 10.28 loads of trim and 35.90).
FEEDER CATTLE
Feeder cattle contracts dip to mostly limit lows as the noon hour approaches. March feeders are down $4.45 at $108.55, April feeders are down $4.50 at $108.10 and May feeders are down $4.47 at $110.00. Heavy, heavy pressure pushes feeder cattle contracts lower as live cattle contracts can't rally any support and the cash cattle market isn't mustering up any strength either.
LEAN HOGS
The lean hog market is dodging some of Monday's chaos and some contracts are fortunate enough to be trading with only single-digit losses. April lean hogs are down $0.87 at $55.50, June live cattle are down $4.50 at $66.80 and July lean hogs are down $3.72 at $68.77. Although the morning cash market didn't trade higher, a significant number of hogs sold; 10,377 head, indicating that packers are planning to keep processing speeds fast enough to keep up with consumer demand.
The projected lean hog index for 3/13/2020 is up $0.43 at $59.29, and the actual index for 3/12/2020 is up $0.54 at $58.86. Hog prices are lower on the National Direct Morning Hog Report, down $0.38 with a weighted average of $53.71, ranging from $48.00 to $56.00 on 10,377 head sold and five-day rolling average of $53.23. Pork cutouts total 238.42 loads with 231.18 loads of pork cuts and 7.24 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: up $4.17, $74.01.
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