DTN Early Word Opening Livestock 06/20 05:58

DTN Early Word Opening Livestock 06/20 05:58 Look for Cattle Contracts to Open the New Week Lower The cattle complex should open lower, pressured by follow-through selling and struggling fundamentals. Lean hog futures are likely to open on a firm basis tied to bull-spreading interest and improving pork demand. By John Harrington DTN Livestock Analyst Cattle: Steady-$2 LR Futures: 50-100 LR Live Equiv $145.66 -1.54* Hogs: Steady-$1 HR Futures: 10-30 HR Lean Equiv $ 93.06 + .62** * based on formula estimating live cattle equivalent of gross packer revenue ** based on formula estimating lean hog equivalent of gross packer revenue GENERAL COMMENTS: Strangely, the cash cattle trade never seemed to get off the ground last week, especially in terms of volume. To be sure, prices were sharply lower given limited tests on Wednesday and Thursday. Positively (in terms of keeping feedlots current), last week's slaughter was quite large. 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 in part to a certain number of unsold steers and heifers carried over from last week. Live and feeder are staged to open moderately lower, checked by residual selling and faltering cash and product sales.