Friday Midday Livestock Market Summary - Mixed Support Leads Contracts into the Afternoon

 General Comments

As the noon hour nears, the cattle contracts are fighting some resistance while the lean hog market trades mostly stronger. The feeder cattle contracts have slid to completely lower prices while the live cattle market only faces some pressure in the summer months of 2021. Largely the pressure in the feeder cattle market stems from exhausted traders and leeriness of the corn market's rally. March corn is up 4 1/4 cents per bushel and January soybean meal is up $7.00. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 154.46 points and NASDAQ is down 14.02 points.

LIVE CATTLE

The live cattle contracts are seeing some slight pressure for some deferred contracts but otherwise the market is comfortable trading modestly higher. December live cattle are up $0.67 at $110.02, February live cattle are up $0.22 at $114.67 and April live cattle are up $0.02 at $118.45. The market has had an impressive week and with an anticipated bullish Cattle on Feed Report, the market is starting to align for a strong market leading into 2021. It's looking like the week's cash cattle business is mostly done for with no bids having been renewed as of yet. Norther trade developed this week from $105 to $108, which was $1.00 to $2.00 lower than last week's averages and dressed cattle in the North traded for $165 to $167 which is $1.00 to $3.00 lower than a week ago. The South waited to trade until Thursday afternoon at $108 which ended up actually being for a couple cents more than last week's weighted average.

Boxed beef prices are mixed: choice down $1.46 ($208.05) and select up $1.40 ($195.10) with a movement of 60 loads (43.54 loads of choice, 10.87 loads of select, zero loads of trim and 5.14 loads of ground beef).

FEEDER CATTLE

The feeder cattle market hasn't had a joyous Friday but given the rally the market was able to accomplish earlier in the week, Friday's lack of support heading into the Christmas week makes sense. Instead of battling resistance pressures and potentially setting the market up to only scale lower as there's usually less interest over the holidays, traders have merely stepped back and are letting the day take its course. January feeders are down $0.92 at $140.05, March feeders are down $0.70 at $141.90 and April feeders are down $0.50 at $143.50.

LEAN HOGS

The lean hog market was having an easy, trade higher without any hesitation type of day but as the noon hour arrives there's some modest pressure building in various lean hog contracts. February lean hogs are down $0.02 at $65.47, June lean hogs are up $0.12 at $74.30 and July lean hogs are up $0.02 at $80.95. With the cash market continuing to trade lower and pork cutout values lower at midday, it wouldn't be surprising if the market faces a little more pressure when trading in the afternoon hours.

The projected lean hog index for 12/17/2020 is down $0.67 at $63.72, and the actual index for 12/16/2020 is down $0.66 at $64.39. Hog prices are lower on the National Direct Morning Hog Report, down $1.46 with a weighted average of $50.79, ranging from $46.00 to $53.00 on 4,415 head and a five-day rolling average of $52.45. Pork cutouts total 214.77 loads with 196.71 loads of pork cuts and 18.06 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: down $0.70, $72.52.