Market News
Cattle trade in the South at steady prices with last week: June 26, 2009
Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle contracts settled mostly 12 to 70 points lower, with only the spot June in the black. Trade was very quiet and traders were concerned over cattle that remained unsold. Spreaders sold the deferred months and bought the front months. June finished the session .52 higher at 82.47; August was down .15 at 82.40. Boxed beef cutout values were weak on light demand and moderate offerings. Choice boxed beef was down .76 at 138.93, and Select was .29 lower at 132.30.
Feeder cattle settled narrowly mixed from 10 higher to 17 points lower. August and September ended higher on underlying August chart support and spreading into September out of August, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Remaining contracts were modestly lower on the bearishness in the live pit. August closed .02 higher at 98.97, and September was up .10 at 98.75.
Feeder cattle receipts at Missouri auctions this past week totaled 25,175. Steers under 650 lbs trended steady to 3.00 lower, heifers weighing less than 600 lbs 1.00 to 4.00 lower, heavier weight steers and heifers were steady to 2.00 higher. Feeder steers medium and large 1 and 1-2 weighing 500 to 600 lbs traded from 90.00 to 118.00, 5 to 6 weight heifers brought 80.00 to 107.10 per hundredweight.
The weekly cattle slaughter was estimated at 673,000 head, 2,000 less than last week, and 40,000 fewer than a year ago. Cattle trading was active in the Southern Plains Friday on moderate to good demand. Compared to last week, live sales were steady at 82.00, and Kansas dressed sales were also steady at 129.00. Trading was light in Nebraska with moderate demand. Compared to last week, dressed sales were mostly 1.00 lower at 129.00, a few clean-up sales on a live basis traded at 81.50.
Hog slaughter for the week was estimated at 2,032,000 head, 30,000 less than last week, and 108,000 less than a year ago. Barrows and gilts at the terminals were very lightly tested at steady prices with an instance of 2.00 higher at Peoria from 33.50 to 42.00 on a live basis. Missouri direct base carcass meat price closed steady from 49.00 to 53.00. Barrows and gilts in the Iowa/Minnesota direct trade closed .34 higher at 56.86 on a carcass basis, the West was up .08 at 57.20, and the East was .33 higher at 55.14. Packers had zero processing plans for Saturday reflecting the poor packer margins and demand for product. Monday’s market is projected to be weaker.
Lean hogs settled37 to 202 points lower. The market started out stronger, but the early momentum did not last. There was very little good news in the hog market, but traders were hoping that the expected 2 to 3 percent drop in numbers in the hogs and pigs report may give the market some relief. July closed .37 lower at 56.70, and August was down 1.10 at 57.70.Pork trading was slow with light to moderate demand and offerings. The lean carcass cutout was up .42 at 55.28.
Pork bellies finished the session unchanged to 40 points lower on some light buying support with light trade activity. July was down .40 at 58.40, August closed at 59.55 also down .40.
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