Monday Midday Livestock Market Summary - Cattle Rally as Trader Interest Trudges Into New Week

GENERAL COMMENTS:

Diving into Monday afternoon, the livestock sector is sitting fine in the lean hog and cattle markets. Lean hog futures are lower, but if we see advancements in pork cutout prices and in the cash market by closing, then Tuesday stands a chance of trading higher again. Meanwhile, the cattle market is seeing stronger trade in both the live cattle and feeder cattle contracts, which hopefully fuels feedlots' desire to wait until the later part of the week to market their cattle and reap higher prices. May corn is down 8 1/4 cents per bushel and May soybean meal is down $9.00. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 58.58 points and NASDAQ is up 203.86 points.

LIVE CATTLE:

After trailing lower Thursday and Friday of last week, live cattle futures are back to trading modestly higher after accomplishing a steady to $1.00 to $2.00 higher cash market last week and being fueled by a neutral/somewhat bullish Cattle on Feed Report on Friday. April live cattle are up $0.60 at $119.00, June live cattle are up $0.57 at $119.25 and August live cattle are up $0.50 at $118.27. Last week's push in the Northern Plains for the cash cattle market really helped feedlot positions up there as they waltz into this week's market with fewer cattle on their showlists. The South may still be able to bump up their prices this week as the boxed beef market is looking like it may be ready to scale higher as demand for beef grows rapidly as spring kicks off the new season. Showlists this week are higher in Texas, but somewhat lighter in Kansas and significantly lighter in Nebraska and Colorado.

Boxed beef prices are higher: choice up $1.03 ($231.02) and select up $1.24 ($221.19) with a movement of 41 loads (30.21 loads of choice, 4.81 loads of select, zero loads of trim and 5.70 loads of ground beef).

FEEDER CATTLE:

Feeder cattle futures are back to trading fully higher after tumbling lower late last week. March feeders are up $0.30 at $134.97, April feeders are up $0.62 at $140.05 and May feeders are up $1.32 at $146.00. Thankfully, towards the later part of last week both feeder cattle and calves saw an increase in demand. If corn prices can keep trading lower, or at least hold somewhat steady, the market may be itching to climb higher, especially if the cash cattle market sees gains again this week.

LEAN HOGS:

Lean hog contracts are trading cautiously, waiting for the hog market's fundamentals to shine through before pushing the complex higher yet again. April lean hogs are up $0.35 at $94.60, June lean hogs are down $1.40 at $99.20 and July lean hogs are down $1.17 at $99.45. For the hog market's sake, thankfully slaughter speeds are expected to continue to run strong, and thus far cash prices and pork cutouts are holding their own. If pork cutout values and the cash market can close higher, there may be a chance the market can trade higher come Tuesday or later in the week.

The projected CME Lean Hog Index for 3/19/2021 is up $1.00 at $92.71, and the actual index for 3/18/2021 is up $0.47 at $91.71. Hog prices are higher on the National Direct Morning Hog Report, up $0.18 with a weighted average of $86.01, ranging from $84.00 to $89.00 on 3,688 head and a five-day rolling average of $86.58. Pork cutouts total 129.14 loads with 113.63 loads of pork cuts and 15.51 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: up $3.39, $106.38.