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DTN Midday Livestock Comments 10/29 11:32
Cattle Dip Lower While Hogs Chop Sideways
Bids of $345 to $348 are currently on the table in Nebraska, and bids of
$225 are being offered in Kansas -- but no new trade has developed yet.
ShayLe Stewart
DTN Livestock Analyst
GENERAL COMMENTS:
The livestock complex is trading mixed into Thursday's noon hour as the
cattle contracts continue to scale lower, while the lean hog contracts have
found mild technical support. Bids are on the table in both the North and South
but no new trade has been noted. December corn is up 3/4 cent per bushel and
December soybean meal is down $5.30. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down
147.74 points and the NASDAQ is down 354.61 points.
LIVE CATTLE:
The live cattle complex is continuing to trade lower as traders remain leery
of whether or not adequate fundamental support is going to develop later this
week. There's only been a light test thus far in the fed cash cattle market,
but on Wednesday Northern cattle did trade at $350 to $352 -- which is $13.00
to $15.00 lower than the previous week's weighted average -- but too few of
cattle traded to say that any sort of an accurate trend has been established.
But a cautious, weaker tone has again settled back into the cattle complex.
October live cattle are down $0.87 at $226.50, December live cattle are down
$1.97 at $225.32 and February live cattle are down $1.80 at $228.70. Bids of
$345 to $348 are currently on the table in Nebraska, and bids of $225 are being
offered in Kansas, but no new trade has developed yet today.
Boxed beef prices are lower: choice down $1.50 ($367.50) and select down
$3.70 ($351.55) with a movement of 54 loads (39.31 loads of choice, 6.00 loads
of select, zero loads of trim and 8.73 loads of ground beef).
FEEDER CATTLE:
The feeder cattle complex is also trading lower as it doesn't want to move
oppositely of the live cattle market and would also like to see continued
fundamental support. October feeders are down $0.42 at $351.00, November
feeders are down $1.45 at $345.30 and January feeders are down $1.62 at
$340.47. If the board continues to trend lower, feeder cattle prices in the
countryside could soften.
LEAN HOGS:
And after a painstaking decline, the lean hog complex has found some mild
technical support which is allowing the contracts to trade slightly higher.
December lean hogs are up $1.55 at $60.15, February lean hogs are up $0.40 at
$64.57 and April lean hogs are up $0.05 at $70.70. A sideways/to somewhat lower
trend in the lean hog complex is likely as pork demand doesn't seem to be
improving. The projected lean hog index for 10/28/2026 is down $1.00 at $67.30,
and the actual index for 10/27/2026 is down $1.06 at $68.30. Hog prices are
higher on the Daily Direct Morning Hog Report, up $7.24 with a weighted average
price of $63.06, ranging from $54.00 to $67.00 on 929 head and a five-day
rolling average of $59.23. Pork cutouts total 153.50 loads with 130.28 loads of
pork cuts and 23.22 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: down $1.39, $71.06.
ShayLe Stewart can be reached shayle.stewart@dtn.com
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