GENERAL COMMENTS:
This week has been anything but predictable and the livestock future s are counting down the minutes until Friday's last bell. After Thursday's depressing trade, traders seem to be content to let the weekend come before doing much more in the contracts. July corn is down 13 3/4 cents per bushel and July soybean meal is up $1.40. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 286.87 points and NASDAQ is up 267.88 points.
LIVE CATTLE:
After Thursday's depressing trade, the live cattle market was hoping to simply skate by Friday and head into the weekend without any more damage. The contracts are mostly lower, but as of now the losses aren't vast, as only modest pressure looms above the market heading into Friday afternoon trade. June live cattle are up $0.15 at $115.75, August live cattle are down $0.40 at $119.00 and October live cattle are down $0.42 123.62. Seeing how boxed beef prices close Friday afternoon will be interesting as at midday the market is showing both choice and select cuts lower. The cash cattle market hasn't sold many cattle this week and there's yet to be any bids renewed as of Friday morning. It's looking like this week's business is mostly done with, though a little clean-up trade could develop here and there before the weekend.
Boxed beef prices are lower: choice down $0.64 ($316.14) and select down $2.97 ($292.94) with a movement of 74 loads (39.53 loads of choice, 9.38 loads of select, 18.09 loads of trim and 7.22 loads of ground beef).
FEEDER CATTLE:
It feels like feeder cattle futures only trade adversely to the corn market when corn prices are trading lower. As the feeder cattle complex sits back and tries to gain a grasp on what's going on in the live cattle, cash cattle and corn markets to determine what its own trajectory should be next, a puzzling situation presents itself. With corn prices down hard Friday morning, one would think feeder cattle contracts would be rallying with joy! But unless the live cattle market shows more promising outcomes for fat cattle. It's hard to add much pep in your step when cash cattle seem to be topped out at $119 to $120 amid $6.00 corn. May feeders are down $0.35 at $137.10, August feeders are down $0.22 at $150.27 and September feeders are down $0.25 at $151.72.
LEAN HOGS:
Lean hog futures are starting to move lower as traders are not willing to support the complex unless a sure sign from either starkly higher pork cutout values arises or wildly higher cash hog prices. It's been a mostly lower-trending week for the contracts and it's not looking like Friday will round out the day any higher than steady at this point. June lean hogs are down $0.15 at $109.95, July lean hogs are down $0.05 at $110.05 and August lean hogs are up $0.15 at $105.87. Seeing that it's Friday and packers have been running extremely light Saturday kills as a shortage of labor continues to be troubling, Friday will most likely round out the week without any crazy developments.
The projected CME Lean Hog Index for 5/13/2021 is down $0.01 at $110.93 and the actual index for 5/12/2021 is down $0.01 at $110.94. Hog prices are lower on the National Direct Morning Hog Report, down $1.95 with a weighted average of $108.11, ranging from $103.12 to $121.00 on 2,862 head and a five-day rolling average of $110.56. Pork cutouts total 204.01 loads with 182.64 loads of pork cuts and 21.37 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: up $0.21, $116.40.
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