GENERAL COMMENTS:
The live cattle complex is trading higher as traders take note of the steady cash cattle sales beginning to take place in the South at $188. Still no Northern dressed cattle trade has developed, but upon seeing Southern hold steady, Northern feedlots may be enticed to price their cattle higher. December corn is up 1 cent per bushel and December soybean meal is steady. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 201.85 points.
LIVE CATTLE:
The live cattle complex is rallying into Wednesday's noon hour as the market has seemed to catch a wind of technical support that's helping advance the market. August live cattle are up $0.97 at $183.65, October live cattle are up $0.60 at $185.12 and December live cattle are up $0.22 at $186.67. Also helping the market is the fact that a few cash cattle sales have been noted in the South where prices are being marked at $188 – fully steady with last week's weighted average. It was expected that the Southern plains would trade lower this week so seeing the market hold steady at its earliest start is encouraging to not only traders, but Northern feedlots as well who could potentially aim at getting higher prices this week upon seeing such news. Asking prices for live cattle in the South remain firm at $188 but are still not established in the North.
Boxed beef prices are lower: choice down $1.18 ($318.08) and select down $1.76 ($299.83) with a movement of 88 loads (66.93 loads of choice, 15.68 loads of select, zero loads of trim and 5.73 loads of ground beef).
FEEDER CATTLE:
One would logically expect that with corn prices trading merely sideways and with the live cattle contracts trading higher that the feeder cattle complex would be rallying too -- but logic doesn't always win. The entire feeder cattle complex is trading lower into Wednesday's noon hour as it would appear that traders are having a hard time advancing the contracts back above the market's 100-day and 40-day moving averages. This technical threshold could be a challenge for the market moving forward if the live cattle/cash cattle market doesn't add substantial support. August feeders are down $0.65 at $257.97, September feeders are down $0.60 at $258.92 and October feeders are down $0.42 at $258.82.
LEAN HOGS:
The lean hog complex is again trading higher as traders continue to rally on the market's stronger performance in pork cutout values, and upon having found some technical momentum in the futures complex as well. August lean hogs are up $0.22 at $91.50, October lean hogs are up $0.80 at $73.00 and December lean hogs are up $1.05 at $65.17. What's especially exciting about today's higher carcass price in the midday report is that the carcass price is not over inflated by any one single cut -- the ham and the picnic are seeing the biggest day over day gains, but neither cut is over $5.00 higher.
The projected lean hog index for 7/16/2024 is up $0.18 at $88.80, and the actual index for 7/15/2024 is up $0.20 at $88.62. Hog prices are lower on the Daily Direct Morning Hog Report, down $0.22 with a weighted average price of $84.66, ranging from $75.00 to $86.00 on 3,826 head and a five-day rolling average of $84.62. Pork cutouts total 152.25 loads with 138.64 loads of pork cuts and 13.61 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: up $0.39, $101.26.
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