GENERAL COMMENTS:
It's been a fruitful day for the cattle contracts as both the live cattle and feeder cattle futures are trading $3.00 higher into Wednesday's noon hour. Still no cash cattle trade has developed and both bids and asking prices have yet to be established. March corn is down 3 1/4 cents per bushel and March soybean meal is down $0.80. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 42.63 points and NASDAQ is down 9.83 points.
LIVE CATTLE:
It's almost as if the overarching theme in the live cattle complex as we head into Wednesday's noon hour is, "Why are we waiting around? We know the market's direction is higher." So where does all this support come from this morning? Good question, because boxed beef prices are lower, there's yet to be any trade in the fed cash cattle market, and the equity markets aren't doing anything that would justify trading notably higher. But if there's one thing we know and understand about the livestock complex, it's that it is an anticipatory market. If traders think the market is bound to trade substantially higher, one may ask, "Why not today?" February live cattle are up $3.30 at $242.40, April live cattle are up $3.50 at $240.92 and June live cattle are up $2.77 at $236.62. Still no trade has developed in the fed cash cattle market and both bids and asking prices remain elusive at this point.
Boxed beef prices are mixed: choice down $0.41 ($367.14) and select up $1.19 ($364.09) with a movement of 53 loads (45.12 loads of choice, 3.38 loads of select, zero loads of trim and 4.62 loads of ground beef).
FEEDER CATTLE:
Upon seeing the live cattle contracts trading higher, it didn't take much convincing to get the feeder cattle futures to move higher also. March feeders are up $3.02 at $367.80, April feeders are up $3.62 at $364.90 and May feeders are up $3.77 at $360.55. Sales have been noticeably stronger this week in the countryside for both feeder cattle and calves as supplies remain incredibly thin.
LEAN HOGS:
Meanwhile the lean hog complex is the same story Wednesday that it's been over the last couple of days as the market continues to scale lower. April lean hogs are down $1.12 at $94.37, June lean hogs are down $0.82 at $108.07 and July lean hogs are down $0.67 at $109.87. And with pork cutout values down slightly, the market won't likely change its direction this afternoon.
The projected CME Lean Hog Index for 2/10/2026 is up $0.20 at $86.52, and the actual index for 2/9/2026 is down $0.15 at $86.32. Hog prices are higher on the Daily Direct Morning Hog Report, up $3.36 with a weighted average price of $88.28, ranging from $81.00 to $88.75 on 2,142 head and a five-day rolling average of $86.56. Pork cutouts total 170.57 loads with 146.86 loads of pork cuts and 23.72 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: down $1.01, $94.45.
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