DTN Early Word Opening Livestock 12/28 05:58
28 Dec 2018
DTN Early Word Opening Livestock 12/28 05:58 Meat Futures Staged to Open Late-Week Business With Mixed Price Action Look for cattle complex futures to open slowly mixed as bulls and bears jockey ahead of late December cash sales. Lean hog contracts should also start out on both sides of unchanged, tied to short-covering and long liquidation. By John Harrington DTN Livestock Analyst Cattle: Steady Futures: Mixed Live Equiv: $142.47 - .25* Hogs: Steady-$1 LR Futures: Mixed Lean Equiv: $ 75.14 - .19** * based on formula estimating live cattle equivalent of gross packer revenue ** based on formula estimating lean hog equivalent of gross packer revenue GENERAL COMMENTS: Welcome to the last Friday of 2018. Such last-minute delays in the cash cattle trade has produced positive dividends for much of the fourth quarter. Is there one more round of Friday strength left in the feedlot trade? Time will tell. The answer should be evident at least by mid to late afternoon. Opening packer bids should be around $118 to $119 on a live basis, well below asking prices around $121 to $122. Look for opening dressed bids close to $190 in the face of asking prices near $195. Live and feeder futures seem geared to open mixed thanks to follow-through buying on one hand and profit-taking on the other.