DTN Early Word Opening Livestock 10/31 06:13

DTN Early Word Opening Livestock 10/31 06:13 Lean Hog Futures are Set to Open Moderately Higher Look for hog contracts to open Monday on a firm basis, supported by follow-through buying and the cash index premium. On the other hand, the cattle complex seems staged to open on a mixed basis tied to a combination of residual selling and short-covering. By John Harrington DTN Livestock Analyst Cattle: Steady-$2 HR Futures: Mixed Live Equiv $123.77 + 1.01* Hogs: Steady-$1 Futures: 25-50 HR Lean Equiv $ 77.90 - .48** * based on formula estimating live cattle equivalent of gross packer revenue ** based on formula estimating lean hog equivalent of gross packer revenue GENERAL COMMENTS: Cheered by last week's bullish progress, cattle feeders will no doubt start the week with significantly higher asking prices (e.g., $108 to $110 on a live basis). Such optimism may not get verbalized for several days as both sides study early-week board action for clues to eventual cash behavior. Without a doubt, Monday's activity will be limited to the distribution of new showlists. Given last week's decent trade volume totals, we expected the new offering to be steady to smaller than last week. Live and feeder futures are geared to open on a mixed basis thanks to follow-through selling on one hand and short-covering on the other.