Livestock are higher Monday morning, with grains lower.
Cattle hit record highs again to start the week in both live and feeder cattle futures.
Brad Kooima of Kooima Kooima Varilek, says funds are buying but fundamentally the futures are working in Friday’s record cash trade for the fourth straight week, with the futures at a discount.
The North traded live at $210 - $212, up $6 to $8 from the previous week’s weighted averages and some of the cattle sold on Friday are already moving to slaughter.
Dressed prices were ,pst;u $328 to $330, also up $6 to $8.
He says the South gave in early to trade on $201 to $202, steady to $1 higher.
USDA’s Cattle on Feed Report was also friendly with the on feed number at 99.1% and placements were at 96.7%, which were both below trade expectations.
The marketings were at 101%, slightly above trade estimates.
Kooima says placements in Texas were at only 77% due to the border being closed to Mexican feeder cattle.
However, the percentage of heifers placed verses steers dropped 3% to 38.7% and Kooima says this may be the first slight hint of heifer retention.
Hog futures are following the cattle market but are also seeing lighter slaughter numbers and talk of increased disease is supportive.
Grain futures break on South American weather and tariff concerns.
Argentina received some rain over the weekend in dry areas and there are heavy rains in the extended forecast, so the market is removing weather premium.
After the back and forth tariff tiff with Columbia over the weekend, there are no new tariffs being imposed, but there are increased fears about the Trump tariff plan for Mexico and Canada.
Meanwhile, USDA reported a flash sale of 5.5 million bu. of U.S. corn sold to Mexico.
The stock market is also seeing pressure as China has developed AI or chip technology, Deep Seek, that rivals the U.S.
