Monday Midday Livestock Market Summary - Traders Try to Wrap Their Heads Around the Market With Little Success

GENERAL COMMENTS:

As the market tries to sift through the slew of announcements that came over the weekend -- stemming from APHIS's announcement that Mexican cattle imports are to resume any day, or the announcement that tariffs will be imposed on both Mexico and Canada. Traders are having a difficult time finding traction in Monday's market. March corn is up 5 1/4 cents per bushel and March soybean meal is up $0.60. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 61.28 points.

LIVE CATTLE:

One would have logically expected the live cattle complex to be trading higher this week as Friday's Cattle Inventory report clearly showed that there were fewer beef cows and heifers in the United States compared to a year ago. But what seems to be overclouding that bullish fundamental fact is that on Saturday, Feb. 1, APHIS announced that cattle imports from Mexico are going to resume any day now. We don't know how many cattle are going to come, or when specifically, but these two questions alone are enough of a reason for the live cattle complex to be trading lower, like it is. February live cattle are down $0.90 at $203.70, April live cattle are down $2.00 at $200.30 and June live cattle are down $2.10 at $194.60.

Last week Southern live cattle traded at mostly $208 which is $6.00 to $7.00 higher than the previous week's weighted average. Northern dressed cattle traded from $325 to $330, but mostly at $330, which is steady with the previous week's weighted average. And depending on where the week's weighted averages land, it's likely that these prices are again (for the fifth week in a row) new record setting prices.

Boxed beef prices are higher: choice up $3.55 ($331.23) and select up $3.74 ($320.81) with a movement of 40 loads (20.17 loads of choice, 9.88 loads of select, zero loads of trim and 10.17 loads of ground beef).

FEEDER CATTLE:

Upon the announcement from APHIS over the weekend that cattle imports from Mexico are going to resume any day now, it comes as no surprise to see the feeder cattle market distressed over the matter. The biggest fear the feeder cattle complex has is that Mexican imports could add more supply to the market and negatively affect prices. March feeders are down $4.15 at $271.55, April feeders are down $4.20 at $270.65 and May feeders are down $4.25 at $268.87.

LEAN HOGS:

The lean hog complex has plummeted lower Monday morning as market participants try to make sense of the slew of announcements that broke over the weekend. While President Trump announcement earlier Monday morning that Mexico won't have tariffs imposed on it for at least another month, the market is trading in an unraveled fashion as U.S. pork producers are concerned about their ability to export pork into Mexico as they're our biggest export market. February lean hogs are down $0.07 at $84.10, April lean hogs are down $4.00 at $86.35 and June lean hogs are down $3.37 at $99.62.

The projected lean hog index for 2/3/2025 is up $0.29 at $83.77, and the actual index for 1/30/2025 is up $0.42 at $83.48. Hog prices are unavailable on the Daily Direct Morning Hog Report because of confidentiality. However, we can see that only 165 head have traded, and that the week's five-day rolling average now sits at $83.84. Pork cutouts total 179.46 loads with 166.84 loads of pork cuts and 12.62 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: up $0.43, $95.18.