Tuesday Midday Livestock Market Update - Contracts Find Support

GENERAL COMMENTS:

Livestock futures are striding out aggressively as Tuesday heads into the afternoon. The three livestock markets are all seeing support, but both the live cattle and lean hog contracts wish to see supportive fundamental trade as the day moves on. March corn is down 17 cents per bushel and March soybean meal is down $5.90. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 335.18 points and NASDAQ is up 227.05 points.

LIVE CATTLE:

Live cattle futures are posting a modest rally heading into Tuesday afternoon. With feedlots hoping for higher prices again this week, it's likely we won't see significant trade until Wednesday or later. Asking prices in the South have been noted at $142 to $143-plus; the North has yet to disclose what they'd like to get this week. February live cattle are up $0.55 at $142.97, April live cattle are up $0.62 at $146.97 and June live cattle are up $0.70 at $142.12. Feedlots could have a tough time seeing much better than steady prices as packers sit with some committed cattle, which alleviates their need to jump aggressively into the cash market. Still, processing speeds have been running aggressively, which helps feedlots plea for at least steady prices. One regional packer has bid $223 in some eastern Nebraska feedlots, but other than that the cash cattle market sits idle.

Boxed beef prices are mixed: choice down $2.63 ($271.33) and select up $1.14 ($269.89) with a movement of 99 loads (53.61 loads of choice, 7.63 loads of select, 7.76 loads of trim and 30.25 loads of ground beef).

FEEDER CATTLE:

As the nearby corn contracts trend 15 to 16 cents lower and the nearby soybean contracts taper 11 cents lower, the feeder cattle contracts are capitalizing on the day's opportunity to rally. March feeders are up $2.05 at $168.92, April feeders are up $1.55 at $173.07 and May feeders are up $1.62 at $177.17. Slightly higher trade in live cattle futures is helping give the feeder cattle complex a little bit of encouragement. But the real support from the live cattle market will come (or not) from this week's cash cattle trade.

LEAN HOGS:

Lean hog futures are happy to keep with their upward trend as the complex aspires to keep pushing higher, but the market does so knowing resistance looms. April lean hogs are up $2.00 at $104.32, June lean hogs are up $1.50 at $108.00 and July lean hogs are up $1.97 at $113.22. Last Thursday posed as a chart top for a large majority of the contracts and, as the market pushes higher, the top could test higher again shortly. Helping matters is that pork cutout values are stronger at midday, though we know that the day's not over until afternoon reports are out.

The projected CME Lean Hog Index for 2/14/2022 is up $1.33 at $91.84, and the actual index for 2/11/2022 is up $1.59 at $90.51. Hog prices are lower on the National Direct Morning Hog Report, down $5.62 with a weighted average of $78.75, ranging from $78.00 to $88.00 on 2,986 head and a five-day rolling average of $80.36. Pork cutouts total 170.12 loads with 156.45 loads of pork cuts and 13.67 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: up $2.13, $110.11.