DTN Midday Livestock Comments 11/19 11:45

DTN Midday Livestock Comments 11/19 11:45 Cattle Market Rally Continues Into Tuesday's Noon Hour The cattle contracts continue to trade higher as trader interest continues to funnel into both the live cattle and feeder cattle markets. ShayLe Stewart DTN Livestock Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: The livestock complex is again trading mixed into Tuesday's noon hour as the cattle contracts are rallying with ample trader support, but the lean hog contracts are trading mostly lower as traders aren't finding enough fundamental support in the hog complex to justify advancing the contracts any more. Asking prices are noted in the South at $187. December corn is up 1/2 cent per bushel and December soybean meal is up $1.90. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 119.29 points LIVE CATTLE: The live cattle complex is again trading higher into the day's noon hour as the added interest of traders has been the bullish wind the market was longing for. It would be a near perfect storm for the market if its fundamentals were helping aid trader movement along, but at this point the live cattle market's fundamentals continue to be lethargic as boxed beef prices are still mixed, and it's yet to be seen what the cash cattle market will do this week. But with next week a holiday shortened week for Thanksgiving, it's logical to assume with reduced slaughter speeds in the near future, steady trade will likely be the market's best outcome this week. Asing prices are starting out in the South at $187 but are still not established yet in the North. December live cattle are up $1.57 at $185.67, February live cattle are up $1.17 at $187.12, and April live cattle are up $1.02 at $189.00. Boxed beef prices mixed: choice up $1.23 ($308.51) and select down $).93 ($274.52) with a movement of 93 loads (44.36 loads of choice, 28.34 loads of select, 3.69 loads of trim and 16.28 loads of ground beef). FEEDER CATTLE: Yet again the feeder cattle complex is trading higher into the day's noon hour as the market continues to see a plethora of trader interest, which is consequently helping drive the contracts higher. January feeders are up $1.67 at $251.10, March feeders are up $1.77 at $250.40, and April feeders are up $1.72 at $251.27. At this point, the spot January contract is trading at its highest point since the commodity meltdown in August and the market hasn't shown any signs of reaching exhaustion yet. And while the live cattle market's fundamentals haven't been overly supportive lately, it would be remiss of me not to mention how strong feeder cattle sales have been in the countryside as Monday afternoon the CME Feeder Cattle Index closed at $252.62. LEAN HOGS: The cattle complex may be rallying and easily drawing in the attention of traders, but the lean hog market seems to have exhausted traders support at this point as it continues to trade lower. Not helping matters is the fact that last week when the market ran into resistance levels the fundamentals haven't been supportive enough to justify any higher trade throughout the futures. Again, Tuesday morning pork cutout values are lower, and largely that's because of the continued volatility in the belly which spiraled another $8.34 lower on this morning's report. December lean hogs are down $0.02 at $80.00, February lean hogs are down $0.07 at $83.20 and April lean hogs are down $0.07 at $87.35. Hog prices are lower on the Daily Direct Morning Hog Report, down $1.12 with a weighted average price of $82.00, ranging from $80.00 to $84.50 on 1,555 head and a five-day rolling average of $85.84. Pork cutouts total 205.20 loads with 171.97 loads of pork cuts and 33.23 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: down $2.34, $94.73. ShayLe Stewart can be reached shayle.stewart@dtn.com (c) Copyright 2024 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.