The past two days in cattle have showed some longs liquidating their positions along with negative supply news and a bearish cattle-on-feed report have pushed the market down to the 121000 level. Right now, traders are keeping this market in a sideways trade and could continue this way for the next week. The market is on good support levels and may look to bounce off those levels and continue the sideways trade into the rest of the week. The USDA estimated cattle slaughter came in at 122,000 head yesterday. This brings the total for the week so far to 236,000 head, down from 242,000 last week, but unchanged from a year ago. The USDA boxed beef cutout was up 25 cents at mid-session yesterday but closed 37 cents lower at $234.11. This was up from $232.05 the previous week.

Lean Hogs are seeing profit taking continue and the June hog contract hasn’t seen early this month. In the second half of the year we should expect to see some import activity from China. The progress for the U.S./China trade deal is close to fruition causing another push in this market along with many other Ag markets. The CME Lean Hog Index for April 19th came in at 81.54, up 52 cents from the previous session and up from 79.57 the previous week. The USDA estimated hog slaughter came in at 475,000 head yesterday. This brings the total for the week so far to 799,000 head, down from 904,000 last week, and down from 928,000 a year ago.

Lean Hogs Jun ’19 Daily Chart