DTN Early Word Livestock Comments 11/05 06:57

DTN Early Word Livestock Comments 11/05 06:57 Cattle Trade Should Be Active The cattle complex turned tail, erasing most of the gains made on Wednesday. Traders became concerned over the possibility of futures overreacting to the possibility of higher cash than has already been posted this week. Hog futures reacted to a strong export sales number with China back buying again. Robin Schmahl DTN Contributing Analyst Cattle: Higher Futures: Mixed Live Equiv: $216.43 +$0.90* Hogs: Steady Futures: Mixed Lean Equiv: $104.66 -$2.75** *Based on formula estimating live cattle equivalent of gross packer revenue. (The Live Cattle Equiv. Index has been updated to depict recent changes in live cattle weights and grading percentages.) ** based on formula estimating lean hog equivalent of gross packer revenue GENERAL COMMENTS: Cattle were under pressure from two fronts Thursday. First, weekly export sales were not supportive due to the numbers being 13% below the previous week. Sales were 15% higher than the four-week average but that provided little, if any support. Second, cash activity did not surface as anticipated, pushing business to the end of the week. The few cattle that did trade Thursday, traded $2 higher at the levels of earlier in the week. So far, feedlots seem to have banded together in hopes that packers will need to be more aggressive than they have been so far. Traders lost confidence over packers paying more than they already have this week. Boxed beef prices were higher with choice up $1.73 and select up $0.50. Futures tried to close the chart gaps left on Wednesday but fell short of accomplishing the task. That may be done early Friday.