GENERAL COMMENTS:
The livestock complex had a successfully Wednesday as most of the contracts were able to close steadily higher. It's a win for the day but cash prices for cattle are still up in the air, and cash hog prices continue to trade lower. Hog prices were lower on then National Direct Afternoon Hog Report, down $1.36 with a weighted average of $34.08 on 6,433 head sold. May corn is down 6 3/4 cents per bushel and May soybean meal is up $4.70. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 445.41 points and NASDAQ is down 122.56 points.
LIVE CATTLE:
Live cattle contracts struggled to motivate the August through December contracts but closed mostly higher with the rest of the livestock complex. June live cattle closed $1.02 higher at $84.82, August live cattle are steady at $89.52 and October live cattle are down $0.50 at $94.97. In today's environment no news is good news, and the fact that there was little chatter about packing plants is a good sign. Cash cattle trade continues to hold out for the later part of the week though a handful (not enough to accurately determine a trend for the week) of cattle sold in Iowa. Wednesday's slaughter is estimated at 93,000 head, 9,000 head less than a week ago and 28,000 head less than a year ago.
Boxed beef prices are higher: choice up $3.86 ($230.53) and select up $6.45 ($222.22) with a movement of 112 loads (64.26 loads of choice, 21.04 loads of select, 9.62 loads of trim and 17.13 loads of ground beef).
THURSDAY'S CASH CATTLE CALL: Steady. The environment for cash cattle trade is perplexed this week. Packers are doing all they can do to keep employees safe and are trying to slaughter as many cattle as possible with cutout values scaling higher. Seeing that trade is waiting until later in the week is a good sign for cash cattle enthusiasts.
FEEDER CATTLE:
Feeder cattle prices closed the day higher except for in the spot April contract, closing mostly $0.37 to $1.50 higher with most excitement in deferred contracts. May feeders closed $0.72 higher at $115.57, August feeders closed $0.37 higher at $126.72 and September feeders closed $0.62 higher at $128.00. At Bloomfield Livestock Feeder Cattle Auction in Bloomfield, Iowa, compared to last week, steer calves under 650 pounds sold $3.00 to $5.00 lower, and there wasn't a big enough offering this week of anything over 650 pounds to accurately compare for a true test. Heifer calves under 550 pounds were $10.00 to $15.00 lower. The CME feeder cattle index 4/14/2020: down $0.30, $114.23.
LEAN HOGS:
The lean hog market successfully closed higher through the entire market. June lean hogs up $0.67 at $44.62, July lean hogs up $0.75 at $51.72 and August lean hogs up $1.07 at $56.05. Pork cutouts totaled 397.26 loads with 347.21 loads of pork cuts and 50.05 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: down $0.97, $52.10. Wednesday's slaughter is estimated at 445,000 head, 33,000 head less than a week ago and year ago. The CME lean hog index 4/13/2020: down $0.53, $47.49.
THURSDAY'S CASH HOG CALL: Lower. Unfortunately, the market doesn't have much of an option but to trade lower until the packing plant situation gets back to normal.
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