DTN Early Word Opening Livestock 05/02 06:19

DTN Early Word Opening Livestock 05/02 06:19 Lean Hog Paper Staged to Open With Moderate Strength Expect lean hog futures to open moderately higher, supported by technical buying and improving fundamentals. The cattle complex is likely to begin the week with mixed prices tied to a combination of short-covering and nervous cash/product potential. By John Harrington DTN Livestock Analyst Cattle: Steady-$2 LR Futures: Mixed Live Equiv $142.06 -0.64* Hogs: Steady-$1 HR Futures: 10-30 HR Lean Equiv $ 87.54 +0.69** * based on formula estimating live cattle equivalent of gross packer revenue ** based on formula estimating lean hog equivalent of gross packer revenue GENERAL COMMENTS: The cash cattle market will begin slowly Monday as buyers and sellers concentrate exclusively on the distribution of new showlists. We expect the early May offering will be steady to somewhat larger than last week. Given the deep discount of new-spot June live and the ongoing erosion of carcass value, it may be a puzzling job for feedlot managers to initially price ready cattle. For what it's worth, our guess is that asking prices will start out around $126 to $128 in the South and $200 plus in the North. There seems to be more and more evidence of a two-tiered market with cattle sold with more days tagged at a lower prices. Live and feeder are set to open on a mixed basis thanks to a slow combination of short-covering and nervous cash expectations.