Cattle feeding country is generally quiet at
midday as buyers and sellers circling each other with steady/weak bids
and higher asking prices (i.e., $120-plus in the South and $190-plus in
the North). A few steers and heifers have sold in Kansas at $118. The
National dressed hog base at midday is quoted 0.20 lower ($44.00-51.00),
with a weighted average of $49.27. Corn futures are 3-4 cents lower in
late morning business, checked by profit taking and technically
insignificant churning. Equities are lower near midday with the Dow off
74 points and the Nasdaq down by 20.
LIVE CATTLE:
Spot April is moderately higher near midday
(i.e., up 30), but well off early session highs. Traders seem a bit
optimistic about greater packer spending, but not overly so. Summer and
early fall contracts are moderately lower (i.e., off 12 to 47) thanks to
bull spreading and ongoing worries about mounting beef tonnage. Beef
cut-outs are mixed at midday, up 0.36 (choice, $212.84) to off 0.49
(select, $200.18) with light to moderate box movement (44 loads of
choice cuts, 9 loads of select cuts, 6 loads of trimmings, 11 loads of
coarse grinds).
FEEDER CATTLE:
Feeder paper is narrowly mixed moving toward the
week's final hour of trading (i.e., off 5 to 55). Some profit taking is
evident of the heels of yesterday's bullish wave forward.
LEAN HOGS:
The action here is quite slow as spot April
prepared to go off the board. Note that practical June is now more than
$23 ahead of the April expiration. Much bullishness has already been
dialed in relative to the seasonal rally. Yet traders now face the same
old question: Is the June premium too big, or not big enough? The
carcass value at midday is moderately higher thanks to firmness in fresh
cuts and processing items. Pork cut-out: $66.85, up 0.79. CME cash lean
index for 04/11: 52.97, off 0.05 (DTN Projected lean index for 04/12:
53.23, up 0.26).
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