DTN Midday Livestock Comments 01/03 11:43

DTN Midday Livestock Comments 01/03 11:43 Livestock Traders Cautiously Approach Tuesday's Noon Hour Traders aren't diving into the livestock complex wildly, instead longing for fundamental support to increase before they'll turn the markets higher. ShayLe Stewart DTN Livestock Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: With the holidays officially behind us, everyone is eager to get back to a somewhat normal schedule and see what demand amounts to in both the cattle and hog markets, as well as what prices are able to be achieved in both the futures complex and cash sectors. March corn is down 8 3/4 cents per bushel and March soybean meal is down $8.80. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 214.01 points. LIVE CATTLE: The live cattle complex was trying to trade higher early in the day, but the market has shifted gears and is now trading fully lower into Tuesday's afternoon. With boxed beef prices up over $4.00 higher for both choice and select cuts, the market will likely change its tone once it has time to absorb the fundamental support stemming from strong boxed prices. It's expected that cash cattle prices will trade at least steady if not potentially higher again this week as packers set out to run a somewhat normal kill schedule. Determining what a normal kill schedule will be in 2023 remains a wildcard as packers are going to be closely monitoring their margins. Higher boxed beef prices allow them more margin and security, but the advancements made in the cash sector will pressure them well through 2023 and likely into 2024. February live cattle are down $1.07 at $156.82, April live cattle are down $0.90 at $160.90 and June live cattle are down $0.95 at $156.87. Most of last week's cash cattle trade took place on Thursday and Friday. Northern dressed deals ranged from $248 to $255, but mostly from $252 to $254, which is $3.00 to $5.00 higher than the previous week's weighted average. Southern live cattle traded for mostly $157, which is $1.00 higher than the previous week's weighted average. Boxed beef prices are higher: choice up $4.88 ($286.86) and select up $4.08 ($255.01) with a movement of 62 loads (30.92 loads of choice, 6.98 loads of select, 8.48 loads of trim and 15.63 loads of ground beef). FEEDER CATTLE: The feeder cattle market is trading lower into Tuesday's afternoon as traders are interested to see how feeder cattle demand fares early this week before they do too much in the market. It's been a little over two weeks since the market has last seen sale barns run their normal schedules, which will likely mean that buyers are anxious to hit the auction yards and see what prices pan out to be early this year. It should help that the live cattle market and cash cattle market are trading with as much momentum as they are, and we can't overlook the fact that corn prices are trading lower too -- all every favorable conditions for the feeder cattle market. January feeders are down $0.97 at $182.72, March feeders are down $1.30 at $184.92 and April feeders are down $0.85 at $188.77. LEAN HOGS: The lean hog complex is trading notably lower into Tuesday's afternoon as the market fears that demand isn't sufficient. February lean hogs are down $2.72 at $84.97, April lean hogs are down $2.07 at $93.22 and June lean hogs are down $1.75 at $107.42. Traders are going to be heavily watching any changes in either cash prices or pork cutout values as they're desperately longing for some supportive break through the fundamental side of the market. After the long holiday run, it's reasonable to expect retailers to need to restock, but whether or not that will really help pork prices is yet to be seen as cold storage supplies remain abundant. The projected lean hog index is unavailable at this time. Hog prices are unavailable on the Daily Direct Morning Hog Report due to packer submission issues. Pork cutouts total 169.63 loads with 146.92 loads of pork cuts and 22.71 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: down $0.74, $87.16. ShayLe Stewart can be reached shayle.stewart@dtn.com (c) Copyright 2023 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.