DTN Early Word Livestock Comments 09/10 06:24

DTN Early Word Livestock Comments 09/10 06:24 Traders Hope For Supportive Fundamentals Tuesday Cattle futures reversed the losses of Friday on Monday, uncovering buying interest when contacts reached the lows. Profit-taking and technical buying were triggered quickly, turning the market higher. Hog futures traded without much fanfare with some continued spread trading due to continued market uncertainty. Robin Schmahl DTN Contributing Analyst Cattle: Lower Futures: Mixed Live Equiv: $226.91 +$0.06* Hogs: Higher Futures: Mixed Lean Equiv: $101.83 -$0.38** *Based on the formula estimating live cattle equivalent of gross packer revenue. (The Live Cattle Equiv. The 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: Traders did not have much fundamental information to trade on Monday, so the focus turned to technical activity. When live cattle reached the previous low of Aug. 21, profit-taking and technical buying were triggered, moving futures quickly higher. The same can be said for feeder cattle as those contracts reached the previous contract lows before aggressive buying was triggered. It seems the activity Monday was technical and not fundamental. Cash cattle were not traded with anticipation that cash would be no better than steady this week. Packers were able to continue to purchase cattle for deferred delivery last week, leaving them less aggressive again this week. Boxed beef prices were mixed with choice down $0.89 and select up $2.37. Feeder cattle futures may run out of steam and have difficulty moving higher as most of the short covering has run its course.