GENERAL COMMENTS:
So far, it's been another fruitful day for the livestock complex with all three of the markets trading higher into Tuesday's noon hour. For the cattle complex, the support of stronger boxed beef prices is helping ease market anxiety. May corn is down 2 3/4 cents per bushel and May soybean meal is up $0.20. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 131.01 points.
LIVE CATTLE:
The live cattle complex is continuing to trade higher as the market is relieved to have not found more news as of late about avian influenza and to see support stemming from stronger boxed beef prices. April live cattle are up $0.45 at $179.87, June live cattle are up $0.65 at $173.97 and August live cattle are up $0.52 at $171.42.
Given the sell-off that started roughly three weeks ago, the market is now far from any resistance pressure and should be able to trade higher so long as fundamental support remains evident and spec nervousness dwindles. The cash cattle market hasn't seen any interest develop as cash cattle trade will likely be delayed until Thursday or Friday. No bids or asking prices have been noted yet either.
Boxed beef prices are higher: choice up $0.63 ($302.70) and select up $1.70 ($301.97) with a movement of 69 loads (41.71 loads of choice, 13.82 loads of select, 4.59 loads of trim and 8.54 loads of ground beef).
FEEDER CATTLE:
The feeder cattle complex opened with cautious tones at Tuesday's start but as the noon hour neared, feeders are now trading fully higher. Feeder cattle demand in the countryside hasn't weakened and the furthest deferred contracts are currently seeing the biggest day-over-day gains as the simple fact remains that until heifers begin to be kept back for replacements, the U.S. beef cowherd will remain historically low and feeder cattle prices should remain high. April feeders are up $0.60 at $239.90, May feeders are up $1.32 at $238.50 and August feeders are up $0.70 at $248.95.
LEAN HOGS:
The lean hog complex is trading mixed as the market has found ample support for its nearby contracts, but the market's deferred contracts are trading slightly lower. With pork demand holding strong, the futures complex continues to advance its nearby contracts hoping that summer demand will continue to help the market flourish. April lean hogs are up $0.47 at $90.22, June lean hogs are up $0.02 at $107.97 and July lean hogs are down $0.32 at $109.87.
The projected lean hog index for April 8 is up $0.83 at $87.88 and the actual index for April 5 is up $0.74 at $87.05. Hog prices are unavailable in the Daily Direct Morning Hog Report due to confidentiality reasons. However, we can see that only 335 head have traded and the market's five-day rolling average now sits at $85.82. Pork cutouts total 169.44 loads with 154.58 loads of pork cuts and 14.86 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: up $0.48, $100.81.
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