Friday Market Watch - Markets Strong To Finish The Week

LIVESTOCK:

The livestock complex rounded out Friday's market with a bang as the saw higher closes in the live cattle, feeder cattle and lean hog markets. Feedlots are hoping that, given the fact that packers haven't been overly aggressive in the cash market for three weeks now, next week they'll have to chase the market a little harder to get enough cattle bought. Hog prices closed lower on the Daily Direct Afternoon Hog Report, down $3.70 with a weighted average of $91.28 on 4,189 head. 

From Friday to Friday, livestock futures scored the following changes: October live cattle up $1.13, December live cattle up $0.72; September feeder cattle down $0.88, October feeder cattle up $0.63; October lean hogs up $3.15, December lean hogs up $0.42; September corn up $0.30, December corn up $0.19.

Friday's slaughter is estimated at 127,000 head, 4,000 head more than a week ago and 7,000 head more than a year ago. Saturday's slaughter is projected to be around 92,000 head. This week's slaughter is estimated at 604,000 head, 34,000 head less than a week ago and 25,000 head more than a year ago

Boxed beef prices closed lower: choice down $0.75 ($257.26) and select down $1.31 ($234.73) with a movement of 118 loads (74.70 loads of choice, 21.98 loads of select, 8.34 loads of trim and 13.44 loads of ground beef). Throughout the week choice cuts averaged $259.27 (down $0.46 from a week ago) and select cuts averaged $236.90 (down $2.17 from a week ago) and the total movement of cuts, grinds and trim totaled 650 loads.

More: Friday Closing Livestock Market Update - Stronger Closes Sweep Across the Complex

GRAINS:

September corn closed up 24 cents per bushel and December corn was up 16 1/2 cents. September soybeans closed up 18 3/4 cents and November soybeans were up 26 1/4 cents. December KC wheat closed up 36 1/4 cents, December Chicago wheat was up 40 1/2 cents and December Minneapolis wheat was up 27 1/4 cents. 

For the week:

September corn closed up 29 1/2, with December corn up 19 1/4 cents. September soybeans closed down 21 1/4, with November down 8 1/4 cents. Kansas City December wheat closed up 51 1/2 cents, with Chicago DEc up 58 1/2, and Minneapolis Dec up 35 1/4 cents for the week.

DAIRY:

November, December, and January Class III contracts are above $21.00 again. They have recently been here a few times but have fallen back each time. The strength of cheese prices this week would suggest the market might finally trend higher for a period of time. Next week's trade will be critical for price support. It is not that recent demand increased substantially or that supply tightened significantly. It is just that buyers needed to be more aggressive with their purchases this week. An increase in orders may have surfaced prompting buyers to increase ownership of supply. Holiday buying should be increasing even though the holidays seem quite a way off. However, moving production into the desired channels and packaging for various holiday products takes time. Milk supply continues to be sufficient for demand. The strength of milk futures this week with prices holding into the weekend may indicate traders are becoming more friendly to a longer trend higher. However, we are not out of the woods yet.

More: Friday Closing Dairy Market Update - A Strong Close to the Week

FORAGE: This Week's Hay Market Reports (Forage Fodder Blog)

OUTSIDE MARKETS:

The September U.S. Dollar Index is trading down 0.713 at 109.000. October crude oil gained $3.25 ending at $86.79. The DOW increased 377 points closing at 32,152 while the NASDAQ gained 250 points ending at 12,112. December gold is up $6.10 at $1,726.30, December silver is up $0.26 at $18.71 and December copper is up $0.0285 at $3.5555. October heating oil is up $0.0418, October RBOB is up $0.0894 and October natural gas is up $0.057.