DTN Early Word Opening Livestock 08/31 06:10

DTN Early Word Opening Livestock 08/31 06:10 Cattle Futures Likely to Open Moderately Higher Look for live and feeder cattle contracts to open moderately higher, supported by follow-through buying and hopes of stabilizing cash. Lean hog contracts should be mixed in the early going thanks to spillover selling on one hand and short-covering on the other. By John Harrington DTN Analyst Cattle: Cash Steady Futures 10-30 HR Live Equiv $162.96 - .38 * Hogs: Cash Steady-$1 LR Futures Mixed Lean Equiv $89.35 - .23 ** * based on formula estimating live cattle equivalent of gross packer revenue ** based on formula estimating lean hog equivalent of gross packer revenue GENERAL COMMENTS: Cattle market watchers are set start another week with the most recent snapshot of cash business only partially developed. While the Northern trade on Friday was light to moderate with most dressed sales at $228 (roughly $4 lower), Southern biz never seemed to get off the ground (some dressed deals were evident late at $231). It will be interesting to see what the mandatory summary for the week says when the data is released near midday. With that confusion in mind, Monday's action should be typically slow with the distribution of showlists about the only thing on the agenda. Our guess is that the pre-holiday offering will be about steady with last week. Initial asking prices should be around $150 in the South and $232-plus in the North. Live and feeder futures seem geared to begin moderately higher thanks to residual buying and cash premiums.