MORNING LIVESTOCK REPORT
By Dennis Smith
312-242-7905
708-519-0678
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Tuesday June 1, 2021
LEAN HOGS:
JBS corporate has been hit with the cyber-attack over the weekend and it’s crippled the company world-side. JBS did not kill and process any animals overnight in Australia. Operations will be impacted greatly today in the U.S. Look for sharply lower cash hog prices and lower futures to begin the session. The extent and length of the down-time is unknown, even to JBS. Obviously, they’re frantically working on the situation. As we learn more, I’ll update in the midday pork and beef update. Look for cattle to take this news harder than will the hog market. At the moment, nothing else really matters. Until JBS gets back on-line, killing and processing, everything will be disrupted. The best case would be one to three days. Worst case, a week or more. At this moment I just don’t have any more information than this. JBS has 5 pork processing plants in the U.S. with capacity of 92k per day. Pork will be sharply higher.
LIVE CATTLE:
JBS is down due to a cyber-attack and for the moment, nothing else matters. The company did not kill and process any cattle overnight in Australia. I’m told they’re down in the U.S. for today. Cash steer prices will be quoted sharply lower and beef, wholesale beef will be sharply higher. In addition, starting today, LC futures have a limit of 500 points and feeders have a limit of 650 points. Cattle will be forced to react much more severely than hogs because the cattle market is backed up and in a bearish supply situation going into the crisis. There is no reason, absolutely no reason to be long June LC. If you have exposure here, get out. This situation will drive Aug through the 11600 support like a hot knife through butter. This should kill the demand for feeders and send this market sharply lower over time. At the moment this is all the information I have. Expect a sharply lower trade. JBS has 9 beef processing plants in the U.S. with capacity of 28k per day.
