GENERAL COMMENTS:
Stronger tones are leading the livestock contracts higher into Wednesday's noon hour as the market's fundamental support across both the beef and pork markets has been supportive this past week. Still no cash cattle trade has developed, but mild interest could begin to develop this afternoon but it's likely that trade is still delayed until Thursday or Friday. December corn is up 2 3/4 cents per bushel and December soybean meal is up $7.30. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 212.03 points.
LIVE CATTLE:
The live cattle complex is finally trading higher as traders have mustered up some support and are leading the contracts mildly higher into Wednesday's noon hour. Last Friday the complex ran to new contract highs, and after a couple days of trading lower, traders are again feeling confident enough in the market's fundamentals to justify trading the contracts higher as they're away from immediate technical pressure and are closer to seeing what the market's cash cattle trade could be. Still no cash cattle trade has developed, but asking prices in the South are noted at $185 to $186 but are still elusive in the North. It's expected that cash cattle prices will remain at least steady this week, but there is the potential that prices could trade mildly higher. October live cattle are up $0.65 at $186.32, December live cattle are up $0.57 at $191.05 and February live cattle are up $0.52 at $195.45.
Boxed beef prices are lower: choice down $0.78 ($301.34) and select down $1.87 ($279.91) with a movement of 127 loads (48.30 loads of choice, 29.41 loads of select, 33.59 loads of trim and 15.71 loads of ground beef).
FEEDER CATTLE:
Even though the corn complex is fronting a mild $0.02 rally, the feeder cattle complex is back to trading higher which is likely because of the support seeping over from the live cattle complex and from the continued support of strong sales in the countryside. September feeders are up $0.90 at $254.40, October feeders are up $1.32 at $260.60 and November feeders are up $0.72 at $265.75. The stronger trade could continue through the week's end if the cash cattle market begins to trade higher as the rest of the market's fundamentals (strong feeder cattle sales, and moderate corn prices) remain supportive.
LEAN HOGS:
With continued support of the cash market and mostly favorable news this week for pork cutout values, the lean hog complex is continuing to trade higher into Wednesday's hours even though the market is flirting with resistance pressures. October lean hogs are up $0.22 at $85.07, December lean hogs are up $0.70 at $76.95 and February lean hogs are up $0.72 at $79.92. I am somewhat surprised to see pork prices up $1.40 this morning and for the day's volume to already be close to 10,000 -- this comes to show that packers were shorter bought than assumed.
The projected lean hog index for 9/19/2023 is up $0.09 at $86.67, and the actual index for 9/18/2023 is down $0.23 at $86.58. Hog prices are higher on the Daily Direct Morning Hog Report, up $1.40 with a weighted average price of $78.73, ranging from $75.00 to $80.00 on 9,660 head and a five-day rolling average of $78.16. Pork cutouts total 170.14 loads with 152.99 loads of pork cuts and 17.15 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: down $0.03, $101.10.
No comments:
Post a Comment