GENERAL COMMENTS:
Chirp. Chirp. Chirp. You can practically hear the crickets. There's not much developing in the livestock sector as the market is ready for the long holiday weekend. Livestock futures are mostly steady with the week's trend: live cattle are chopping sideways, feeders are enjoying a modest rally amid weaker corn and the hog contracts are keeping with Thursday's regression. December corn is down 10 1/2 cents per bushel and December soybean meal is down $2.50. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 103.19 points and NASDAQ is up 71.77 points.
LIVE CATTLE:
It's not looking like Friday's trade is going to amount to much in the live cattle arena. The live cattle contracts are simply sliding mostly sideways, steady with the week's action and the cash cattle market can't seem to summon a bid to save its life. August live cattle are down $1.12 at $122.45, October live cattle are down $0.77 at $128.47 and December live cattle are down $0.47 at $132.72. Thus far there's yet to be any more cash cattle trade develop as packers are checked out for the weekend and looking at three dark days ahead of them. It's looking like the majority of this week's trade is essentially done. Asking prices for cattle left on showlists are around $122-plus in the South and $198-plus in the North.
Boxed beef prices are lower: choice down $1.87 ($285.78) and select down $1.27 ($265.66) with a movement of 69 loads (34.09 loads of choice, 8.73 loads of select, 8.03 loads of trim and 18.62 loads of ground beef).
FEEDER CATTLE:
Feeder cattle futures are trading mostly higher, other than the nearby September and October contracts which are simply facing minor resistance. The corn market is posting a steep regression in the spot July contract (down $0.21) and the rest of the complex is enduring minor setbacks ahead of the weekend. The feeder cattle contracts are trying to rally but without the market being able to attract a large volume of interested traders, the rally is modest at best. If the corn market continues to bow lower early next week, the market stands a good chance at a rally into next week's trade as later in the week feeder cattle sales will resume and buyers will likely be aggressive as the market took a lengthy, midyear break.
LEAN HOGS:
The poor lean hog market isn't finding much support as nearly the entire market has one leg out the door for the weekend, and most large-scale traders have already left and are backing their boats up to the dock. July lean hogs are up $0.20 at $107.50, August lean hogs are down $1.30 at $99.00 and October lean hogs are down $1.10 at $83.77. Late Thursday evening, USDA revised its afternoon pork cutout value to $115.63, which was up $1.79. As the market nears the noon hour, don't be easily jittered by any swings the market takes as holidays always oddly affect the marketplace and prices could swing positively or negatively ahead of the week's close. The cash hog market isn't expected to see much interest late Friday afternoon as the market prepares itself for a three-day weekend and packers have had enough scouting over the last two months.
The projected CME Lean Hog Index for 7/1/2021 is down $0.49 at $111.21, and the actual index for 6/30/2021 is down $0.43 at $111.70. Hog prices are unavailable on the National Direct Morning Hog Report due to packer submission problems. Pork cutouts total 181.94 loads with 160.01 loads of pork cuts and 21.93 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: up $0.39, $116.02.
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