DTN Midday Livestock Comments 10/06 11:47

DTN Midday Livestock Comments 10/06 11:47 Narrow Gains Hold in Nearby Cattle Trade Thursday Cattle futures have started to focus on stability at midday in nearby contracts as prices are mixed in a narrow range. The ability to pull back from strong early losses as commercial interest is steadily moving back into the market has helped to bring stability into the complex. By Rick Kment DTN Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: Cattle futures have regained momentum during late morning trade, retracting initial triple digit losses with narrowly mixed prices based on the focus on drawing commercial buyers back into nearby contracts. Nearby contracts are posting aggressive gains pushing contracts well off of market lows Thursday morning. Corn prices are lower in light trade. December corn futures are 9 cents lower per bushel. Stock markets are lower in light trade. The Dow Jones is 5 points lower while Nasdaq is down 3 points. LIVE CATTLE: Firming support has moved back into the live cattle futures as traders have backed away from early aggressive market losses. The lack of follow through pressure seen at midday is likely to spark additional late day buyer interest and commercial interest at the end of the week. Trade volume is expected to remain sluggish through the next couple hours, but may limit price movement to a narrow range. Cash cattle have continued to trade Thursday morning with deals being done in the South at $102 which is fully steady with Wednesday's trade and $1.50 per cwt lower than last week. Trade in the North is at $160 per cwt and generally $160 per cwt lower than last week. Beef cut-outs at midday are lower $0.19 lower (select) and down $0.02 per cwt (choice) with active movement of 114 total loads reported (56 loads of choice cuts, 20 loads of select cuts, 13 loads of trimmings, 25 loads of ground beef). FEEDER CATTLE: Early pressure quickly developed across cattle futures Thursday morning, pushing prices to triple digit losses. But the market has retracted early losses with mixed price levels seen at midday. Triple digit pressure continues to hold in deferred feeder cattle trade, while nearby contracts are focusing on narrowly mixed market movements with the focus on drawing price support back into the complex. LEAN HOGS: Nearby lean hog futures have posted a strong triple-digit bounce Thursday morning as buyers have quickly moved back into the complex. The shift of buyer support has been limited to nearby contracts only with October through February futures seeing strong support, while deferred pressure continues to develop across the market. This buyer support has pushed October futures back above $50 per cwt at midday, while December contracts have moved back past long term support levels of $43 per cwt. In order to sustain this momentum buyer interest needs to develop consistently for more than one day at a time, as traders move back into the complex. Cash prices are lower on the National Direct morning cash hog report. The weighted average price fell $1.09 per cwt to $45.42 per cwt with the range from $43.00 to $47.00 on 3,995 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 158 loads selling with prices adding $0.64 per cwt. Lean hog index for 10/4 is at $54.85 down 0.63 with a projected two-day index of $54.36 down 0.49. Rick Kment can be reached at rick.kment@dtn.com (ES) Copyright 2016 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved.