GENERAL COMMENTS:
It was a mixed end to the livestock contracts by Friday's close, as the cattle contracts closed lower but hogs rounded out the day higher. At the time of this writing, the cash cattle market had seen a handful of cattle traded in the North for steady to $3 higher, but the South still hadn't traded cattle. Hog prices closed lower on the Daily Direct Afternoon Hog Report, down $0.03 with a weighted average price of $95.95 on 4,025 head. December corn is down 9 cents per bushel, and December soybean meal is down $5. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 115.63 points.
From Friday to Friday, livestock futures scored the following changes: August live cattle down $0.53, October live cattle down $1.57; August feeder cattle down $1.78, September feeder cattle down $2; August lean hogs up $1.08, October lean hogs down $1.75; September corn down $0.10, December corn down $0.10.
LIVE CATTLE:
By Friday's end, traders simply seemed played out, as they weren't willing to give feedlots the credit they deserved in holding out and waiting until Friday afternoon to trade cattle. At the time of this report, there has been a handful of cattle traded in the North from $295 to $298, which is steady to $3 higher than last week's weighted averages, but Southern cattle have yet to trade. Asking prices remain firm in the North at $297 plus and $182-plus in the South. As a special highlighted note, there were cattle sold in South Dakota for $300 dressed -- now that's worth celebrating, folks! We will have to wait and see what Monday's report shares, but at this point, the week's movement has been extremely thin. August live cattle closed $0.72 lower at $180.37, October live cattle closed $1.20 lower at $181.32 and December live cattle closed $1.15 lower at $185.45.
Friday's slaughter is estimated at 109,000 head -- 4,000 head less than a week ago and 8,000 head less than a year ago. Saturday's slaughter is projected to be around 3,000 head. The week's total estimated slaughter amounts to 603,000 head -- 10,000 head less than a week ago and 42,000 head less than a year ago.
Boxed beef prices closed mixed: choice up $0.58 ($302.61) and select down $0.57 ($277.23) with a movement of 73 loads (51.23 loads of choice, 10.31 loads of select, zero loads of trim and 11.34 loads of ground beef).
MONDAY'S CATTLE CALL: Steady. It's tough telling what next week's market is going to amount to ahead of seeing what this week's market accomplishes. But the biggest takeaway from the cash market this week seems to be that feedlots aren't interested in giving up their showlists for cheaper money -- they have the ability to roll their showlists over and market them the next week..
FEEDER CATTLE:
Even though the nearby corn contracts rounded out the day $0.08 to $0.09 lower, the feeder cattle complex closed lower, too, as its market simply couldn't muster up the interest necessary from traders. It's almost as if traders were leery of supporting the market given that the live cattle contracts closed lower too. One would have hoped that the tremendous support seen from buyers this past week in both video auctions and sale barns would have been enough to sustain the feeder cattle market's higher desire, but that wasn't traders' conclusion by Friday's end. August feeders closed $0.25 lower at $247.75, September feeders closed $0.12 lower at $251.45 and October feeders closed $0.45 lower at $252.87.
The Oklahoma Weekly Cattle Auction Summary shared that compared to last week, feeder steers and heifers traded $1 to $5 higher. Steer and heifer calves traded $4 to $8 stronger. Slaughter cows and bulls traded steady to $2 higher, with the exception of utility cows, which traded $3 to $4 lower. Feeder cattle supply over 600 pounds was 66%. The CME feeder cattle index 8/10/2023: down $0.90, $244.52.
LEAN HOGS:
Traders didn't seem to care what the market's fundamentals did throughout the lean hog market, as their only focus was on the fact that the spot October contract was no longer up against immediate resistance thresholds, which gave them the ability to trade the contracts higher. Meanwhile, both cash prices and pork cutout values closed lower. Once again Friday, the biggest reason the carcass price closed lower was because of a $22.47 drop-off in the belly. October lean hogs closed $1 higher at $81.32, December lean hogs closed $0.72 higher at $74.50 and February lean hogs closed $0.52 higher at $78.55. Pork cutouts totaled 264.37 loads with 242.59 loads of pork cuts and 21.78 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: down $2.93, $110.08. Friday's slaughter is estimated at 456,000 head -- 38,000 head more than a week ago and 24,000 head more than a year ago. The CME lean hog index 8/9/2023: down $0.43, $103.91.
MONDAY'S HOG CALL: Lower. It's unlikely that packers show the cash market too much interest on Monday given that pork cutout values have been volatile.
No comments:
Post a Comment