Market News

Cattle futures get hammered

Cattle country is quiet this afternoon following the distribution of the showlists. The new offering appears to be generally larger with only Colorado showing fewer ready steers and heifers. Some asking prices have been suggested around 163.00 in the South and 263.00 plus in the North. The kill totaled 110,000 head, 1,000 more than last week, and 7,000 greater than a year ago.

Boxed beef cutout values were higher on moderate to fairly good demand and moderate offerings. Choice beef was up 1.35 at 259.14, and select was 1.23 higher at 252.20.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle contracts settled 160 to 312 points lower. The live pit got hammered again on Monday due to technical selling and long liquidation. The fact that the board seemed to ignore the premium status of feedlot business suggests that many traders suspect that the spring top in cattle feeding country has come and gone. April settled 2.45 lower at 156.35, and June was down 3.12 at 146.87.

Feeder cattle ended the session 117 to 442 points lower. Feeders imploded along with their live counterparts, oblivious to the towering reality of the cash index. John Harrington at DTN says, “The bears may be growling enough at this point to test chart support at 200.00”. April settled 1.17 lower at 211.82, and May was down 3.37 at 205.15.

Feeder cattle receipts at the Joplin Regional Stockyards totaled 4500 head today. Compared to last week steer and heifer calves opened steady, yearlings were not well tested early. The demand is good and the supply is moderate. Feeder steers medium and large 1 weighing 500 to 600 pounds traded from 240.00 to 290.00 per hundredweight. 5 to 6 weight heifers brought 227.00 to 249.00.

Lean hog contracts settled 12 to 75 points lower. Traders watched the defensive action in the cattle complex with caution. There are signs that we are ready to step into more manageable fundamentals over the next 30 to 60 days, both in terms of supply and demand. But such positive thoughts took a backseat today due to the ugly fallout in the live pit. May settled .25 lower at 70.27 and June was down .75 at 75.52.

Barrows and gilts in the Iowa/Minnesota direct trade closed .66 higher at 62.64 weighted average on a carcass basis, the West was up.49 at 62.37, and nationally the market was down .54 at 62.18. Eastern markets were not reported due to confidentiality. Missouri direct base carcass meat price was steady from 50.00 to 59.00. Midwest hogs on a live basis were steady to 1.00 higher from 39.00 to 50.00.

The pork carcass cutout value was down .13 at 67.86 FOB plant. Butt and belly primals were both over 4.00 lower.

Commercial pork production once again topped 2014 last week by more than 10%. The evidence seems to be building that the March 1 hogs and pig report was understated.

The Monday hog kill was estimated by USDA at 430,000 head, 22,000 less than last week, but 56,000 more than last year.