DTN Midday Livestock Comments 02/26 12:01

DTN Midday Livestock Comments 02/26 12:01 Cattle Futures Give Back Early Gains at Midday Lack of follow-through buyer support through the cattle complex has created narrowly mixed price moves through live cattle and feeder cattle markets late Friday morning. Lean hog futures remain lower, but have pulled well off of session lows as traders focus on end-of-week positioning. By Rick Kment DTN Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: Cattle futures are mixed at midday with February live cattle contracts posting 37 cent per cwt gains. Deferred futures have slipped lower in midday pressure. Lean hog futures remain lower, although have backed away from session lows at midday. Corn prices are lower. March corn futures are 2 cents lower. Stock markets are higher in light trade. The Dow Jones is 12 points higher while Nasdaq is up 6 points. LIVE CATTLE: Early gains across live cattle futures have given way to mixed trade as traders start squaring positions ahead of the weekend and month's end. Nearby futures continue to hold moderate gains of 30 to 40 cents per cwt based on expectation of firming cash cattle trade at the end of the week. The combination of mixed boxed beef values and softer outside markets is creating additional pressure in deferred outside market pressure. Cash cattle markets are still untraded Friday morning, although bids are becoming more active at $133 to $135 per cwt in the South and $210 in the North. Asking prices continue to hold at $138 to $139 in the South and $215 and higher in the North as feedlot managers hold on for higher cash prices. It is expected that it may be late afternoon before all business is done through the area. Beef cut-outs at midday are mixed, $0.24 lower (select) and up $0.7 per cwt (choice) with light movement of 59 total loads reported (44 loads of choice cuts, 7 loads of select cuts, 0 loads of trimmings, 8 loads of ground beef). FEEDER CATTLE: Mixed feeder cattle trade is seen at midday after early buyer support was unable to hold through the remainder of the morning. No significant changes are seen in either fundamentals or technical factors across the feeder cattle market Friday, leading the market slide to be solely based on market volume. March futures continue to hold onto narrow 22-cent gains at midday, while the rest of the complex has slipped slightly lower with 5 to 25 cent losses. LEAN HOGS: Early pressure has seen through the morning across the lean hog futures market has evaporated as losses in the April contracts have moved from 60 cents midmorning to 20 cents lower at midday based on lack of trade activity developing through the end of the week. The remainder of the lean hog complex is still lightly traded with losses limited to a narrow range of 5 to 20 cents. Position-taking at the end of the week continues to be the main order of business across the entire complex. Cash prices are lower on the National Direct morning cash hog report. The weighted average price fell $2.67 per cwt to $61.41 per cwt with the range from $56.50 to $63.75 per cwt on 2,256 head reported sold. Cash prices are unreported due to confidentiality on the Iowa Minnesota Direct morning cash hog report. The National Pork Plant Report reported 170 loads, selling with prices up $0.06 per cwt. Lean hog index for 2/24 is at $66.52 up 0.03, with a projected two-day index of $66.60, up 0.08. Rick Kment can be reached at rick.kment@dtn.com (ES) Copyright 2016 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved.