DTN Midday Livestock Comments 09/02 12:03

DTN Midday Livestock Comments 09/02 12:03 Cattle Futures Hold Triple-Digit Losses At Midday Swift losses have redeveloped across the livestock market with cattle trade quickly giving back early morning gains as triple-digit pressure floods back into the market. Follow through pressure in cash cattle trade and continued softness in beef values are adding softness to fundamentals before the holiday weekend. By Rick Kment DTN Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: Cattle futures move quickly to triple-digit losses at midday, giving back early attempts to regain a portion of Thursday's losses. Trade volume remains sluggish in pre-holiday trade, but the market remains extremely bearish. Corn prices are higher in light trade. September corn futures are 5 cents per bushel higher. Stock markets are higher in light trade. The Dow Jones is 41 points higher while Nasdaq is up 10 points. LIVE CATTLE: Trade volume in the live cattle futures remains light, but the volatility across the complex has drawn triple-digit losses back into the market with aggressive selling stepping back into the market at the end of the week. The early attempt to push prices higher earlier in the session were unsuccessful as traders quickly are pointing to losses which could see expanded trading limits before markets close Friday. Markets will remain closed Monday due to the long holiday weekend, allowing traders even more time to digest and stew over the recent developments in the cattle complex. Cash cattle trade is limited to just a little clean up trade in Nebraska taking place from 4173 to $175 per cwt during the morning. The overall lack of support in the cash markets continues to drive additional softness through the entire complex, and may spill over into next week. Beef cut-outs at midday are lower $0.57 lower (select) and down $3.64 per cwt (choice) with light movement of 62 total loads reported (40 loads of choice cuts, 10 loads of select cuts, 4 loads of trimmings, 8 loads of ground beef). FEEDER CATTLE: Feeder cattle futures have traded mixed through the morning with light pre-holiday trade seen through the entire complex. Trade has started to weaken at midday with triple-digit losses quickly developing across the entire cattle market, creating the concern that another loss of $2 to $3 per cwt may develop by the end of the session. Even though overall trade volume remains extremely light, the overall weakness in fundamentals is likely to have a limited impact to expected support developing next week once active trade steps back into the market. LEAN HOGS: Moderate losses have developed through the morning Friday due to extremely light trade activity in the entire lean hog complex. Early support seen in nearby trade was quickly dashed as traders pulled back from early gains developing Thursday and the concern that traders may continue to focus on the erosion of market fundamentals early next week and limit the recent futures market support which has moved above initial support during early September. At this point, traders could continue to hold prices in a moderate range without any additional short-term direction from cash or pork values, while still limiting the pressure in nearby contracts. Cash prices are lower on the National Direct morning cash hog report. The weighted average price fell $1.94 per cwt to $57.10 per cwt with the range from $52.00 to $59.50 per cwt on 4,146 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 150 loads selling with prices falling $1.20 per cwt. Lean hog index for 8/31 is at $65.76 down 0.27 with a projected two-day index of $65.26 down 0.50. Rick Kment can be reached at rick.kment@dtn.com (ES) Copyright 2016 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved.