DTN Midday Livestock Comments 07/10 11:39

DTN Midday Livestock Comments 07/10 11:39 Weaker Tones Continue to Pinch Livestock Contracts All three of the livestock markets are trading lower into Wednesday's noon hour as traders remain cautious market participants. ShayLe Stewart DTN Livestock Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: It's been a rough day for the livestock contracts as again all three markets are trading lower. With boxed beef prices turning lower, the cattle complex has taken a sharp turn to weaker ground. December corn is down 1 1/4 cents per bushel and December soybean meal is down $1.60. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 190.65 points. LIVE CATTLE: With midday boxed beef prices mixed, traders are remaining skeptical and are choosing to continue to push the live cattle contracts lower. It will be interesting to see how this week's cash cattle market shakes out because feedlots are going to have a harder job than in the previous weeks of marketing their showlists. Packers will use the board's weakness and lower boxed beef prices as leverage and as a talking point as to why cash prices should be lower (sharply lower in their mind). But even though boxed beef prices are trending lower, the fact still remains that showlists are current, and in a perfect world for feedlot managers, seeing prices hold steady this week or trade just $1.00 lower is always better than $3.00 to $4.00 lower. August live cattle are steady at $182.35, October live cattle are down $0.10 at $183.20 and December live cattle are down $0.62 at $184.72. Boxed beef prices are mixed: choice down $0.41 ($325.25) and select up $1.24 ($305.55) with a movement of 93 loads (60.51 loads of choice, 16.13 loads of select, 7.42 loads of trim and 9.34 loads of ground beef). FEEDER CATTLE: With the live cattle complex again trading lower, the feeder cattle market is trading lower as traders don't want to be on the wrong side of the market's trend. It's an interesting market dynamic to watch right now as fundamentally, the only thing that has changed is the sheer fact that boxed beef prices have made their seasonal high. Fed cattle supplies are still current, and feeder cattle demand is incredible. But regardless of what the market's fundamentals are, traders seem locked into the fact that with boxed beef prices having likely turned the corner and are now going to trend lower through July that they should position themselves cautiously. August feeders are down $0.85 at $254.90, September feeders are down $1.52 at $255.30 and October feeders are down $1.77 at $255.47. LEAN HOGS: It's a "hell, fire and fury," kind of day for the lean hog complex, mainly for the spot August contract which is trading over $3.00 lower at the moment as traders keep an arm's length in the hog complex too. It's somewhat odd to see the hog complex trading as much lower as it is as midday pork cutout values are higher and Tuesday's cash hog market was aggressive, which will likely mean that throughput will hold strong. Yes, midday cash prices are slightly lower Wednesday, but following Tuesday's big move of over 14,000 head, that was to be expected. Regardless of the rhyme or reason, traders are sending the hog contracts lower. August lean hogs are down $3.05 at $85.35, October lean hogs are down $1.45 at $69.35 and December lean hogs are down $1.15 at $62.67. The projected CME Lean Hog Index for 7/9/2024 is up $0.24 at $88.67, and the actual index for 7/8/2024 is down $0.33 at $88.43. Hog prices are lower on the Daily Direct Morning Hog Report, down $0.56 with a weighted average price of $88.76, ranging from $85.00 to $91.00 on 1,616 head and a five-day rolling average of $89.12. Pork cutouts total 174.03 loads with 138.05 loads of pork cuts and 35.98 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: up $1.44, $95.19. ShayLe Stewart can be reached shayle.stewart@dtn.com (c) Copyright 2024 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.