GENERAL COMMENTS:
With the Christmas holiday less than 24 hours away, the live cattle and lean hog contracts are trading lower into Wednesday's noon hour as traders have merely left the market to trade lower until after the holiday festivities. Bids are on the table in the cash cattle market, but nothing new has developed following Tuesday's light trade. March corn is up 2 3/4 cents per bushel and March soybean meal is up $3.40. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 280.80 points and NASDAQ is up 52.57 points.
LIVE CATTLE:
The live cattle complex is trading lower into Wednesday's noon hour as traders have mostly checked out ahead of the holiday. And with the market's 100-day moving average still remaining a barrier, which the complex has yet to be able to challenge, a lower trend is most likely to remain the market's theme through the week's end. February live cattle are down $1.22 at $228.77, April live cattle are down $1.10 at $228.92 and June live cattle are down $0.82 at $223.30. A few bids are currently on the table in the fed cash cattle market, but nothing sizeable has developed following Tuesday's light trade. On Tuesday, there was some light trade noted in the North at $356 to $357, which is steady to $1.00 lower than last week's weighted average, and some Southern live cattle traded at $229, which is $2.00 higher than last week's weighted average. Some light clean up trade could happen between now and Friday, but this week's trade isn't expected to amount to much.
Boxed beef prices are lower: choice down $0.98 ($354.79) and select down $4.56 ($345.03) with a movement of 73 loads (53.29 loads of choice, 9.40 loads of select, zero loads of trim and 10.03 loads of ground beef).
FEEDER CATTLE:
While the live cattle complex trades lower, the feeder cattle contracts are defying the direction of the live cattle market and currently trading higher into the day's noon hour. January feeders are up $0.67 at $345.30, March feeders are up $0.35 at $339.35 and April feeders are up $0.15 at $337.82. It's quite impressive that the feeder cattle complex has been able to maintain its position above the market's 100-day moving average without much support from the live cattle complex.
LEAN HOGS:
The lean hog complex is again trading lower into Wednesday's noon hour after seeing the Quarterly Hogs and Pigs report, and with the holiday sluggishness setting in. February lean hogs are down $0.92 at $85.05, April lean hogs are down $0.45 at $89.82 and June lean hogs are down $0.30 at $102.45. It's likely that the market will look for reassurance fundamentally again before it challenges the resistance at $90.00.
The projected lean hog index for 12/23/2025 is down $0.01 at $83.71, and the actual index for 12/22/2025 is up $0.01 at $83.72. Hog prices on the Daily Direct Morning Hog Report are unavailable because of confidentiality. However, we can see that only 787 head have traded and that the market's five-day rolling average now sits at $68.20. Pork cutouts total 199.87 loads with 190.57 loads of pork cuts and 9.30 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: down $2.70, $93.99.
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