DTN Early Word Opening Livestock 01/21 05:58

DTN Early Word Opening Livestock 01/21 05:58 Barring More Outside Market Problems, Livestock Futures Should Open Higher Look for cattle futures to open some higher thanks to pre-cash short-covering and decent packer margins. Hog paper should also trade moderately higher in the early rounds, supported by constructive fundamentals. By John Harrington DTN Livestock Analyst Cattle: Steady-$2 LR Futures: 25-50 HR Live Equiv $153.94 + .26* Hogs: $1 HR Futures: 25-50 HR Lean Equiv $ 78.42 + .92** * based on formula estimating live cattle equivalent of gross packer revenue ** based on formula estimating lean hog equivalent of gross packer revenue GENERAL COMMENTS: When packers don't know where to bid cattle and feedlots don't know where to price them, about the only thing to do is for everyone to take a second breath. That's where we seem to be Thursday, thanks in no small part to this week's wild volatility in futures tied to outside markets. Odds are good that significant trade volume will be delayed until sometime Friday. On the other hand, some business could develop earlier on hedged cattle if traders can agree on mutually beneficial basis levels. If futures can ignore Wall Street Thursday, live and feeder futures should be geared to open some higher thanks to pre-cash, pre-Cattle on Feed report short-covering.