DTN Early Word Livestock Comments 03/09 06:17

DTN Early Word Livestock Comments 03/09 06:17 Weekly Export Sales May Influence Direction Feeder cattle moved to new contract highs with ease Wednesday. Live cattle posted minor gains in June and later contracts. April hogs made another valiant effort and closed higher for the day. Robin Schmahl DTN Contributing Analyst Cattle: Higher Futures: Mixed Live Equiv: $212.63 -$1.42* Hogs: Lower Futures: Higher Lean Equiv: $94.89 +$0.64** *Based on formula estimating live cattle equivalent of gross packer revenue. (The Live Cattle Equiv. Index has been updated to depict recent changes in live cattle weights and grading percentages.) ** based on formula estimating lean hog equivalent of gross packer revenue. GENERAL COMMENTS: Live cattle futures struggled for a while Wednesday as traders seemed to pull back some of their optimism over cash. Front-month April closed lower with traders waiting to see the level at which cash will trade. There is some idea cash may not be much better than last week. However, feedlots have asking prices $1.00 to $2.00 higher. It may be another week during which cash business will not be done until Friday. Boxed beef prices were mixed yesterday with choice down $3.15 and select up $0.63. It seems boxed beef prices are teetering a little this week after previous weeks of strength. The WASDE report showed beef production up 170 million pounds from the February estimate but 1.625 billion pounds lower than last year. This stands to reason as cattle numbers are lower. The average steer price was raised $3.00 to $162. This is $17.60 higher than the average for 2022.