DTN Midday Livestock Comments 11/12 11:59

DTN Midday Livestock Comments 11/12 11:59 Cattle Recovery Finds More Legs at Midday Live and feeder contracts are surging higher for the second consecutive session, stoked by another round of aggressive short covering and technical buying. Hog futures also find decent support at midday thanks to spillover buying from the cattle complex and talk of stabilizing pork process. By John Harrington DTN Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: Cattle buying interest is slowly starting to take shape with preliminary bids now evident near $131 in the South and $200-202 in the North. Some cattle have been priced around $134-plus in the South and $205-plus in the North. According to the midday report, the national hog base is 0.67 lower compared with the Prior Day settlement ($50.00-$51.00, weighted average $50.61). U.S. stocks are trading lower, checked in part by struggling oil price. The Dow is off by 207 points near midday with the Nasdaq down 29. LIVE CATTLE: While live issues open with a lackluster tone, new bulls quickly managed to resume a substantial recovery effort. Contracts are mostly 145 to 307 points higher in late-morning biz, impressively lifted by further short covering, technical buying, and improving cash expectations. Beef cut-outs are sharply lower at midday, off $2.04 (choice, $212.77) to $2.94 (select, $215.27) with light to moderate box movement (33 loads of choice cuts, 17 loads of select cuts, 27 loads of trimmings, 17 loads of coarse grinds). FEEDER CATTLE: Feeders are tracking the temperature of live futures closely, a discipline that means sharply higher prices near midday. Contracts are holding another round of triple-digit gains, up 125 to 330 points moving toward the top of the hour. Once traders break through the force of bearish momentum, the pull of the cash index premium also becomes a helpful factor. LEAN HOGS: The bounce in the lean hog trade is a bit milder than the rising tide in the cattle complex. Nevertheless, prices are solidly higher as we move toward the noon hour. The popularity of bull spreading is once again causing nearby issues to race ahead of their deferred counterparts. The front half of the market (i.e., Dec through April) is 47 to 137 higher at this time with the back of the board generally running at a slower pace. The carcass value is sharply higher at midday with all primals reflecting better demand except the ham. Pork cut-out: $77.03, up $2.18. CME cash lean 11/10: 59.83, off 1.34 (DTN Projected lean index for 11/11: 58.95, off 0.88). John Harrington can be reached at [email protected] Follow John Harrington on Twitter @feelofthemarket (BAS) Copyright 2015 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved.