GENERAL COMMENTS:
The livestock complex is trading mixed Wednesday morning as both the live cattle and feeder cattle markets celebrate the cash cattle market's success of trading cattle $1.00 to $4.00 higher, but the lean hog market is still trading mixed. More cash cattle trade should develop this afternoon as the week's volume has been light so far. July corn is up 9 cents per bushel and July soybean meal is down $1.70. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 287.63 points.
LIVE CATTLE:
Cash cattle sales are starting to trickle in higher midday Wednesday. There's been a light movement of cattle traded in the South at $171, which is steady in Kansas but $1.00 higher in Texas, and there's been some dressed trade reported in Nebraska at $284 to $285, which is $3.00 to $4.00 higher than last week's weighted averages. Asking prices for cattle left on showlists remain at $174 live and $287 dressed. This week's market is yet again a perfect of example of how the futures complex can react when cash leads the way. Without feedlots tenacity and direction, it's likely that the futures contracts would have aimlessly wandered throughout the week trading steady to somewhat lower. June live cattle are up $1.72 at $166.00, August live cattle are up $1.50 at $164.05 and October live cattle are up $1.22 at $168.40.
Boxed beef prices are mixed: choice down $1.37 ($299.37) and select up $2.10 ($283.38) with a movement of 81 loads (53.29 loads of choice, 17.07 loads of select, zero loads of trim and 10.35 loads of ground beef).
FEEDER CATTLE:
Yes, corn prices may be trading $0.06 to $0.10 higher, but the feeder cattle market is thrilled to be seeing the cash cattle complex trading $1.00 to $4.00 higher and is choosing to rally on that positive news. August feeders are up $0.77 at $234.20, September feeders are up $0.85 at $234.32 and October feeders are up $0.90 at $239.57. After carving out a new high in the spot August contract last week, the complex has traded merely sideways. But with the combination of higher cash cattle prices and impeccable feeder cattle demand in the countryside, feeders could challenge that price point if support persists through Friday.
LEAN HOGS:
It's again a dicey market for the lean hog complex as the nearby contracts are reluctant to look at the day's positive fundamentals and trade higher all while watching the deferred contracts trade mildly higher. June lean hogs are down $0.77 at $79.90, July lean hogs are down $0.17 at $80.82 and August lean hogs are down $0.32 at $80.10. It is encouraging, however, to see packers already buying (and aggressively so in terms of price) in the cash market. I was skeptical of how the cash market would be treated this week after packers procured a large number of hogs last week. But, obviously, packers are still somewhat short bought and are having to pay the higher prices the market is demanding in order to secure the numbers they need.
The projected lean hog index for May 23 is up $0.58 at $80.67 and the actual index for May 22 is up $0.52 at $80.09. Hog prices are higher on the Daily Direct Morning Hog Report, up $3.36 with a weighted average of $79.37, ranging from $73.00 to $87.50 on 7,885 head and a five-day rolling average of $78.09. Pork cutouts total 201.78 loads with 173.60 loads of pork cuts and 28.18 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: down $2.25, $81.25.
No comments:
Post a Comment