Monday and Tuesday were dreary days for cattle contracts, but good for corn markets. Then Wednesday came with a little splash of support for cattle contracts while corn and lean hog markets gave up ground. Now the week's end nears with little understanding as to where the chips will fall. Cattle contracts are mostly lower, the lean hog market isn't finding the support it needs yet corn contracts are trading comfortably within Wednesday's mark. December corn is up 1 1/2 cents per bushel and December soybean meal is down $1.80. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 14.32 points and NASDAQ is up 41.38 points.
LIVE CATTLE
December live cattle opened Thursday at $110.72 and have since slipped to $110.20. Nearby contracts are receding with the same modest setbacks, while December 2020 and February 2021 have 20 to 30 cent gains. With little indication from the board where the market is headed, a lot of pressure shifts to the cash market. As of midday, more bids have circulated around the countryside with packers pushing hard for $105 in Kansas, Nebraska, Texas and Colorado. Asking prices still sit at the $108 mark in the South, and $175 in the North. Very light trade has been reported in parts of Texas at $106, which is $3 higher than last week's weighted average. Unless the board breaks one way or another, it wouldn't be unlikely to see the rest of cash cattle wait to trade until sometime Friday.
Midday boxed beef prices are mixed: choice down $0.87 ($212.10) and select up $1.21 ($187.11). Thursday's offering of boxed beef movement totaled 93 loads (28.99 loads of choice cuts, 22.75 loads of select cuts, 20.70 loads of trim and 21 loads of ground beef).
FEEDER CATTLE
November feeder cattle opened Thursday higher at $142.50 and have since scaled back slightly to $141.80. With moderate gains being had in the nearby contracts and moderate losses seen in the deferred, feeder cattle contracts haven't drawn a lot of interest this week and unless a wild spark takes the live cattle market they probably won't.
LEAN HOGS
The December lean hog contract opened at $69.10 and have scaled back to $68.80. Moderate losses are pretty much seen across the board with the only contract posting a gain being May 2020, up just five cents. Hopefully the trade talk will go well next week with China, and the market can have a clear understanding as to what export markets are going to be available.
The projected lean hog index for 10/02/19 is up $0.89, at $58.72 and the actual lean hog index for 10/01/19 came to $57.83, up $0.78. Prices are down on the National Direct Morning Hog Report, down $0.94 with a weighted average of $49.21, ranging from $45.00 to $51.00 on 5,478 head sold with a five-day rolling average of $48.99. Pork cutouts totaled 178.10 loads with 149.21 loads of pork cuts and 28.89 loads of trim. Pork cutout values came significantly higher, up $2.24 at $76.36.
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