DTN Midday Livestock Comments 05/22 12:12

DTN Midday Livestock Comments 05/22 12:12 Livestock Contracts Trade Relaxed as Industry Looks Toward Weekend The livestock contracts are trading all across the board and seem more than ready to check out and head into the long weekend. ShayLe Stewart DTN Livestock Analyst General Comments Contracts are keeping with the set pace from earlier Friday morning; live cattle continue to feel pressured in nearby contracts, the feeder cattle market is rallying modestly all throughout and the lean hog contracts are simply lower. The day seems to be waiting for the Cattle on Feed Report to come out so the week can wrap up and head into the three-day weekend. July corn is down 1 1/4 cents per bushel and July soybean meal is up $1.60. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 132.17 points and NASDAQ is down 3.26 points. LIVE CATTLE Live cattle contracts are caught trading mixed heading into the noon hour as nearby contracts feel pressure from the industries unknowing of how to manage the built-up inventory of fed cattle while the deferred contracts rally modestly into 2021. June live cattle are down $1.62 at $97.17, August live cattle are down $1.22 at $97.10 and October live cattle are down $0.052 at $99.37. The nearby contracts continue to be pressured at the $100 threshold and as the day progresses, the June contract steps away further and further. Cash cattle trade is quiet, extremely quiet and given that packers bought over 100,000 head last week, their aggression heading into a three-day weekend and on top of a COF report is most likely not going to change. Boxed beef prices are lower: choice down $0.94 ($400.87) and select down $6.47 ($376.06) with a movement of 66 loads (21.89 loads of choice, 6.45 loads of select, 7.31 loads of trim and 30.80 loads of ground beef). FEEDER CATTLE The feeder cattle contracts changed their momentum from Thursday and have traded modestly higher all throughout Friday. August feeders are up $0.55 at $129.42, September feeders are up $0.65 at $130.77 and October feeders are up $0.77 at $131.95. The market seems to be caught in between a rock and a hard spot as the countryside has been able to market calves/feeders and for respectable prices but the support from the board has been less than supportive throughout the week. LEAN HOGS The lean hog complex traded higher Thursday but has been teetered lower again come Friday. Given that cash prices aren't available Friday morning probably indicates that packers haven't been overly aggressive coming off yesterday's advancement in the cash market. June lean hogs are down $0.62 at $58.72, July lean hogs are down $1.27 at $55.90 and August lean hogs are down $1.02 at $54.25. The projected lean hog index for 5/21/2020 is down $1.15 at $63.45 and the actual index for 5/20/2020 is down $1.39 at $64.59. Hog prices on the National Direct Morning Hog Report aren't available due to confidentiality. Pork cutouts total 340.31 loads with 327.11 loads of pork cuts and 13.20 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: down $0.03, $97.82. ShayLe Stewart can be reached shayle.stewart@dtn.com (c) Copyright 2020 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.