More Pressure to Come for Livestock Markets?
Outside markets continue to be in a risk-off trade, though well off the Sunday night lows. Will long liquidation continue in livestock?
EXPANDED TRADING LIMITS
Due to a limit down trade on Friday for live cattle, feeder cattle, and lean hogs, we have expanded limits in all three for today’s trade.
Live Cattle: 9.75
Feeder Cattle: 12.25
Lean Hogs: 6.00
Heading into the weekend livestock markers were locked limit lower. Talking with many clients on Friday we reiterated the three possible outcomes: good news, bad news, and no news, with no news skewing negative. Outside markets are off their overnight lows but largely still sharply lower. If the tariffs are not walked back or watered down, we see additional pressure in livestock as the likely outcome for two main reasons: Record net long and serious concerns over the global economy. If you’re a Fund manager with a cattle position on (that’s likely been very profitable), I can’t imagine trying to explain to your boss why you’re still long cattle with these headwinds. With that said, a lot can change very quickly in this environment, so stay nimble. Position sizing is paramount.
Wath us on RFD-TV, today at 9:45am CT!
Live Cattle (June)
In this type of environment, you have a lot of moving parts, primarily forced liquidation and emotions. This can cause irrational trade movements which make technicals even less reliable than they might otherwise be. Markets in this environment also tend to overshoot fair value.
Resistance: 203.25-204.20**, 206.92-207.30**
Pivot: 199.60-199.975
Support: 195.65-196.07***, 192.725-193.419***, 189.175-190.00****
Daily Cattle and Beef Summary
Cutout values were mixed on Friday afternoon with choice cuts .08 higher to 338.45 and select cuts .66 lower to 317.18. Friday’s slaughter was reported at 109k head. The 5-area average price for live steers was reported at 212.26.
The CME feeder Cattle Index is at 291.95 with the NBW Real-Time Index showing 290.59 as of this morning.
Seasonal Tendency Update
(updated 4.7.25)
Below is a look at historical price averages for June futures on a 5, 10, 15, 20, and 30 year time frames (Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results).
Commitment of Traders Update
Friday’s Commitment of Traders report showed Funds were net buyers of roughly 4.8k futures/options contracts, expanding their net long position to 142,777 futures and options contracts.
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