DTN Closing Livestock Comments

GENERAL COMMENTS

Late-week business in the cash cattle trade was limited to scattered sales at prices near steady with Tuesday. The action was mostly cleanup in nature with some buyers unwilling to raise bids and some sellers unwilling to lower asking prices. The National hog base closed off $1.31 compared with the Prior Day settlement ($53-$58.50, weighted average $57.26). From Friday to Friday, livestock futures scored the following changes: Apr LC off $1.87; Jun LC off $2.55; Mar FC off $2.55; May FC off $3.70; Apr LH off $2.40; May LH up $0.75. Corn futures closed 4 cents lower, pressured by worries that official export expectations for the marketing year may be overstated. The stock market closed generally higher with the Dow up 72 points and the Nasdaq near unchanged.

LIVE CATTLE

Futures closed moderately lower, off 15-67. Once again, live contracts have finished the week focused on technical bearishness and generally blind to steady/firm feedlot sales. Spot April tried its best on Wednesday to push above resistance of $124 to $124.50, But despite evidence of greater packer spending, it just couldn't get the job done. Live contracts continued to dig deeper and deeper discounts to cash, apparently fearing a major increase in beef production through the second quarter. Beef cutouts: firm (choice $225.59, up $0.60, select $216.86, up $0.55) on moderate demand and offerings (43 loads of choice cuts, 14 loads of select cuts, 10 loads of trimmings, 19 loads of coarse grinds).

MONDAY'S CASH CATTLE CALL:

Steady. Monday's business will be typically limited to the distribution of new showlists. We expect the late-March offering to be about steady with this week.

FEEDER CATTLE:

Futures closed moderately lower, off 10-65. Needless to say, feeder issues continue to follow their live counterparts lower. As deferred live targets grow smaller and smaller, commercials naturally, feel obligated to buy feeder contracts proportionally lower. Note that spot March closed below 140 for the first time since Dec. 22. CME cash feeder index: 03/15: $142.71, off $0.10.

LEAN HOGS:

Futures closed mixed up 5 to off 45. The late-week action here was quite tame with no specific feature evident throughout the slow session. Generally speaking, spot April was pressured through the week by the eroding cash index. On the other hand, summer lean issues managed to move higher through the week, supported by bear-spreading and ideas that market hog numbers would begin to decrease sometime next month. Pork cutout: $72.57 (FOB Plant), off $0.23. CME cash lean 03/14: $65.93, off $0.45 (DTN Projected lean index for 03/15: $65.52, off $0.41).

MONDAY'S CASH HOG CALL:

Steady to $1 lower. Opening cash bids on Monday are likely to be on the soft side, as packers remain cautious relative to late-March fundamentals.

John Harrington can be reached at harringtonsfotm@gmail.com

Follow him on Twitter @feelofthemarket

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