DTN Early Word Livestock Comments 12/05 06:01

DTN Early Word Livestock Comments 12/05 06:01 Cattle Support Remains Elusive Cattle cannot seem to find aggressive buyer interest. Futures made a nice run higher for a brief period and then fell back with nearby months closing $2.00 lower. Feeder cattle futures suffered greater losses. Hogs had further support developing despite Lower cash and cutouts on Friday. Optimism has developed for better demand and better prices. Robin Schmahl DTN Contributing Analyst Cattle: Lower Futures: Lower Live Equiv: $213.44 -$1.92* Hogs: Lower Futures: Mixed Lean Equiv: $91.88 +$0.88** *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: Cattle futures opened lower on Monday and then made a valiant effort to move higher bringing futures to nearly unchanged. However, selling pressure quickly pushed contracts back to triple-digit losses. The market is in a bearish mode and lower demand is not helping. No bids or offers of cash have been floated yet but cash is anticipated to trade no better than unchanged with most thinking it will be lower again this week. It is not a matter of more cattle being available, but rather the fundamentals of slower demand. Boxed beef prices were lower yesterday with choice down $2.74 and select down $2.66. live cattle futures broke through and closed below support from back in March. Feeder cattle made new contract lows across the board.