DTN Early Word Opening Livestock 06/13 05:54

DTN Early Word Opening Livestock 06/13 05:54 Cattle Futures Staged for Mixed Opening Live and feeder cattle futures should open on a mixed basis thanks to follow-through selling on one hand and short-covering on the other. Hog contracts also seems geared to initially trade on both sides of unchanged as players cautiously consider early-summer fundamentals. By John Harrington DTN Livestock Analyst Cattle: Steady Futures: Mixed Live Equiv $149.12 + .83 * Hogs: Steady-.50 LR Futures: 10-30 LR Lean Equiv $ 91.68 -1.13 ** * based on formula estimating live cattle equivalent of gross packer revenue ** based on formula estimating lean hog equivalent of gross packer revenue GENERAL COMMENTS: Friday's cash cattle trade was a light to moderate affair with the best volume surfacing in parts of the North. As far as price was concerned, sales in the South were generally steady at $128. However, the late-week market in the North was more of a moving target. Dressed sales on the top cut of choice cattle ranged from $2 to $4 higher (i.e., $208 to $210) surfaced in the early going. Yet, late Friday business was clearly on the fade as packers demanded and won bigger discounts on greener cattle (i.e., $202 to $206). Activity Monday will be limited to the distribution of new showlists. Our guess is that the offering will be somewhat larger than last week thanks to a larger serving of leftovers. Ready steers and heifers could be initially priced around $132 in the South and $210 in the North. Live and feeder futures are likely to open on a mixed basis tied to a combination of residual selling and early-week short-covering.