DTN Midday Livestock Comments 09/24 12:12

DTN Midday Livestock Comments 09/24 12:12 Undetermined Tuesday Market Tuesday has been a sporadic morning with livestock contracts seeming unsure as to where the next move needs to be made. One minute the lines read green, and the next second everything is red. Time will indicate where things are headed, and with Wednesday approaching, a sure direction should come sooner rather than later. By ShayLe Stewart DTN Livestock Analyst General Comments When markets move in unprecedented ways, giving the markets time is the best answer to understanding where things are headed. December corn has jumped around Tuesday morning, but is up 1 cent at midday. The Dow Jones is down 82.17 points and the NASDAQ is down 85 points. LIVE CATTLE October's live cattle contract is down $0.07 at $101.77, all nearby and deferred contracts are seeing losses except December 2020 and February 2021. As the mid-week mark approaches, a down futures board isn't the sign that cattleman are looking for while higher asking prices of $104 to $105 float around in the South and $170 in the North. As of midday Tuesday, nothing has yet to trade and isn't expected to trade until later in the week. Boxed beef cutouts at midday are higher, choice up $0.93 ($215.52) and select is up $1.45 ($189.39). Boxed beef movement totaled 83 loads (42.21 loads of choice cuts, 22.70 loads of select cuts, 10.79 loads of trimmings and 7.42 loads of ground beef). Wednesday's Fed Cattle Exchange has 1,533 head of cattle consigned to the sale with pens from Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and Texas, all with an average weight of 1,253 pounds. FEEDER CATTLE The feeder cattle rally seems to have dwindled as Tuesday's midday trade is sideways. The October feeder cattle contract is down $0.05 at $141.20. The board will have to send an indication as to whether higher or lower prices are in the future, or a clear signal from live cattle trade will have to take place before the feeder cattle market can make way again. LEAN HOGS Even with Tuesday's morning announcement of South Korea's fourth case of African swine fever, the lean hog contracts surge on Nearby contracts have respectable growth, while August 2020 through February 2021 are hesitant about such gains. December lean hogs are up $0.80 at $69.17. The projected lean hog index for 9/23/19 is down $0.31 at $54.82, and the actual lean hog price for 9/20/19 came in $0.67 lower at $55.13. Pork cutout came to 228.55 loads total, with 200.20 loads of pork cuts and 28.35 loads of trimmings. Pork cutout values came in slightly higher at $70.46 up $0.28. Prices are $0.10 higher on the National Direct Morning Hog Report, at a weighted average price of $44.69, ranging from $39.00 to $47.00 on 9,007 head sold, with a five-day rolling average of $44.58. ShayLe Stewart can be reached at [email protected] (BE) Copyright 2019 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved.