GENERAL COMMENTS:
It's a lackluster, dullish day for the livestock complex as all three of the livestock markets are trading lower into Tuesday's noon hour. As the market hopes to see better fundamental support later this week, traders are hitting the pause button on the market's rally as they wait to see what develops fundamentally. May corn is down 1/2 cent per bushel and May soybean meal is down $3.60. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 301.85 points.
LIVE CATTLE:
Traders seem to be fearing the market's resistance at $201, which was established late in January. Also, without knowing how cash cattle prices are going to fair this week, the market seems to be merely chopping sideways. April live cattle are down $0.15 at $204.87, June live cattle are down $0.60 at $200.47 and August live cattle are down $0.50 at $198.35. The cash cattle market remains silent with no bids having surfaced yet and it's likely again this week that trade will be delayed until Thursday, if not, potentially even Friday. Asking prices are noted in the South at $205 plus, but are still not established in the North.
Boxed beef prices are higher: choice up $1.82 ($322.98) and select up $1.43 ($309.33) with a movement of 65 loads (33.66 loads of choice, 11.20 loads of select, 7.20 loads of trim and 13.34 loads of ground beef).
FEEDER CATTLE:
After reaching yet again new contract highs on Monday, the feeder cattle complex is following the lead of the live cattle market as it's also trading slightly lower. Today's lower/holding tone seems to be stemming from the fact that traders want to ensure that fed cash cattle prices are indeed going to trade higher before they encourage the contracts to trade higher. We can't lose sight of the fact that the contracts are either trading at contract highs or steady with the highs made in January. Meanwhile, feeder cattle demand remains incredible in the countryside as buyers know that spring is nearing and that it's going to be turn out time in just a matter of weeks. March feeders are steady at $284.62, April feeders are down $0.10 at $284.10 and May feeders are down $0.42 at $284.87.
LEAN HOGS:
The lean hog complex is also trading lower into Tuesday's noon hour as the market stalemates, seeming unable to muster up enough support to encourage traders to take on the market's resistance at $88.00 in the spot April contract. April lean hogs are down $1.02 at $87.05, June lean hogs are down $2.40 at $96.72 and July lean hogs are down $1.95 at $98.10. Meanwhile, it's also not helping that pork cutout values are down slightly, mainly again because of the $5.37 decline on the belly that's weighing heavily on the carcass price.
The projected lean hog index for 3/17/2025 is up $0.04 at $89.32, and the actual index hog index for 3/14/2025 is down $0.27 at $89.28. Hog prices are higher on the Daily Direct Morning Hog Report, up $2.62 with a weighted average price of $90.29, ranging from $86.00 to $92.50 on 2,915 head and a five-day rolling average of $90.34. Pork cutouts total 133.98 loads with 115.61 loads of pork cuts and 18.37 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: down $0.21, $97.44.
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