Friday Midday Livestock Market Update - Support Continues to be Hard to Come by for the Lean Hog and Live Cattle Contracts

 General Comments

As the day gets closer and closer to the noon hour, the feeder cattle contracts are starting to see some support develop, but the lean hog contracts and live cattle contracts unfortunately cannot say the same. The cash cattle market has been pretty quiet with just some light clean up trade happening in the South. March corn is down 3 1/2 cents per bushel and January soybean meal is down $3.20. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 186.46 points and NASDAQ is up 75.70 points.

LIVE CATTLE

The live cattle contracts have flirted on and off with the idea of trading higher but right before the noon hour, the market is still trading modestly lower. December live cattle are down $0.67 at $108.92, February live cattle are down $0.57 at $112.00 and April live cattle are down $0.27 at $116.02. If boxed beef prices could have held strong through the end of the week, the cash cattle market might have had a chance of trading higher but with boxed beef prices scaling lower the cash market hasn't been too lively through Friday's trade. There was another light round of live cattle trade Friday morning in Texas for $110, but otherwise the market has been mostly quiet.

Boxed beef prices are lower: choice down $1.37 ($239.52) and select down $1.28 ($221.67) with a movement of 99 loads (60.92 loads of choice, 9.35 loads of select, 15.69 loads of trim and 12.85 loads of ground beef).

FEEDER CATTLE

Feeder cattle contracts are seeing some modest support develop in the marketplace which could also be somewhat fueled the morning's lower trending corn prices. January feeders are down $0.07 at $139.72, March feeders are down $0.10 at $139.42 and April feeders are down $0.20 at $140.90. It's unlikely that the market will shoot high enough to rally the short-term resistance plant of $141.00, but a mixed close isn't out of the question for Friday's afternoon trade.

LEAN HOGS

It's looking like the lean hog market is going to round out the week on a lower note as the market still neglects to find substantial support. December lean hogs are down $0.27 at $65.75, February lean hogs are down $0.85 at $66.07 and April lean hogs are down $0.52 at $69.92. Even though the market is trending lower into Friday's afternoon trade, given that the market was able to trade higher earlier in the week Friday's close isn't looking like its going to move far below the week's prior sideways trend.

The projected lean hog index for 12/2/2020 is down $0.16 at $66.55, and the actual index for 12/1/2020 is up $0.04 at $66.71. Hog prices are lower on the National Direct Morning Hog Report, down $0.11 with a weighted averaged $56.16, ranging from $52.00 to $58.50 on 6,263 head and a five-day rolling average of $56.32. Pork cutouts total 228.84 loads with 199.90 loads of pork cuts and 28.94 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: up $3.49, $79.94.