DTN Early Word Livestock Comments 12/16 06:32

DTN Early Word Livestock Comments 12/16 06:32 Cattle May Trend Lower The selling pressure from cattle spilled over into hogs even though cash moved in opposite directions. The fear of lower cash cattle came to fruition with prices falling more than anticipated. Hogs saw three consecutive days of stronger cash. Robin Schmahl DTN Contributing Analyst Cattle: Lower Futures: Lower Live Equiv: $194.87 -0.56* Hogs: Steady Futures: Higher Lean Equiv: $ 94.59 +2.35** *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: Support was knocked out from under the cash cattle market with price generally falling $2.00 to $4.00 in both the North and South. The earlier anticipation was for steady to $1.00 lower, but packers continued to see boxed beef weakness and saw no need to be aggressive this week. It seemed as if feedlots wanted to move cattle before prices weakened further through the holiday period. This allowed packers to purchase for the near term as well as for deferred slaughter. The rest of the week will show any cash trade around Wednesday's established prices. Boxed beef declined Wednesday with choice down $0.46 and select down $1.35. Weekly export sales will be released Thursday and will hopefully be substantially better than last week's marketing-year low.