GENERAL COMMENTS:
It's been a less than electrifying day for the livestock complex as the market lacks substantial trader interest and hasn't been able to do much in the cash markets either. The Foreign Agricultural Service announced on Aug. 31 that they will be unable to publish weekly export sales data on Thursday, Sept. 1 or Thursday, Sept. 8, but expects to resume regular reporting on Thursday, Sept. 15. December corn is down 9 3/4 cents per bushel and December soybean meal is up $1.10. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 107.79 points.
LIVE CATTLE:
The live cattle market is trading mildly higher into Thursday's afternoon, although the market isn't expected to do much ahead of Friday's close given that boxed beef prices are trending lower and that cash cattle sales have been thin, and for sharply lower money this week. More than anything, the market lacks interest and momentum at this point as everyone is anxiously awaiting Friday's last bell to run into the weekend before summer is officially over. After the three-day weekend passes, the market will likely become more focused and, at that point, the cash cattle and live cattle marekt stand a chance at heading higher once again to prices that we reached two weeks ago. October live cattle are up $0.22 at $142.80, December live cattle are up $0.07 at $148.55 and February live cattle are down $0.15 at $153.17. The cash cattle market hasn't seen any renewed interest and it's likely that the week's business is done with, other than a couple clean up deals that could happen ahead of Friday's close. Throughout the week, Southern live cattle have traded for $141, which is $1.00 lower than last week's weighted average, and Northern cattle have traded for $228, which is $5.00 lower than last week's weighted average.
Boxed beef prices are lower: choice down $0.80 ($257.54) and select down $0.97 ($236.77) with a movement of 49 loads (20.46 loads of choice, 18.52 loads of select, 4.28 loads of trim and 6.23 loads of ground beef).
FEEDER CATTLE:
As the corn market dives $0.10 to $0.13 lower in its nearby contracts, the feeder cattle complex is jumping at the opportunity to trade higher despite what the rest of the livestock complex is doing. September feeders are up $0.85 at $183.30, October feeders are up $1.30 at $184.77 and November feeders are up $1.52 at $186.07. The live cattle complex is following in the feeder cattle market's upward blaze, but the cash cattle market's inability to trade cattle for steady to better money doesn't help propel the feeder cattle market at this point in time. After the Labor Day holiday passes, the market should be able to demand more interest and support.
LEAN HOGS:
The oddity of this week's cash hog market is extremely peculiar. Cash prices are unavailable Thursday morning because of packer submission problems, but as of Wednesday afternoon, the lean hog market had still not seem many hogs traded in the cash market and, over the last several months, packers have been buying their hogs on Tuesday or Wednesday as if it were clock work. Now, to packers' defense, we are coming up on a three-day weekend when plants will be running shorter kill schedules, but given how thin supplies of market-ready hogs are, it's still strange that we haven't at least seen 15,000 head traded on one single day. October lean hogs are down $0.20 at $91.30, December lean hogs are down $0.52 at $83.35 and February lean hogs are down $0.57 at $87.22.
The projected lean hog index for Aug. 31 is down $1.36 at $106.26, and the actual index for Aug. 30 is down $1.74 at $107.62. Cash hog prices are unavailable on the Daily Direct Morning Hog Report because of packer submission issues. Pork cutouts total 159.73 loads with 137.56 loads of pork cuts and 22.17 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: up $1.05, $104.24.
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