DTN Early Word Livestock Comments 03/27 06:24

DTN Early Word Livestock Comments 03/27 06:24 Caution May Dominate Early Trading Friday was a good end to the week for live cattle and hogs. Both closed in positive territory with hogs posting the greatest gain. Feeder cattle struggled due to higher corn futures. Robin Schmahl DTN Contributing Analyst Cattle: Steady Futures: Higher Live Equiv: $207.95 -$1.46* Hogs: Steady Futures: Mixed Lean Equiv: $88.32 +$0.74** *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: Cash cattle closed out the week mixed as it traded earlier in the week. Cattle in the South traded $1.00 lower while cattle in the North were $1.00 to $2.00 higher. There was some give and take by both packers and feedlots. Packers are trying to preserve margins due to boxed beef prices struggling recently. On Friday, boxed beef was lower with choice down $2.90 and select down $0.14. It will be interesting to see how many cattle were again purchased for deferred delivery. Feeder cattle were under pressure due to strong corn prices. March feeder cattle were higher due to it moving toward the last day of trading on Thursday and the anticipation of where the contract would settle. The CFTC has now finally caught up on the Commitment of Traders report with the most recent being released. Funds sold 28,789 live cattle contracts last week, reducing their net-long futures positions to 62,677. Funds were net sellers of 3,361 feeder cattle futures, reducing their net-long positions to 6,536 contracts.