US Perspective—07.05.13
The sentiment of the big packer trade is that prices drifted lower last week, after a slow start to the week due to the May Day holiday. As to the amount of the decline, it appears as if it varied between packers and traders. Overall, popular opinion of the trade is that traders were attempting to lead the market lower last week and most traders appeared willing to negotiate prices, especially for voluminous type bids. Members of the trade claimed packers appeared a bit more reluctant to consider any significant discounts to their last traded levels. This led to beliefs that trading ideas between packers and traders were as much as $2 apart towards the end of last week, while it appears the trade agrees there were enough hides sold last week to clear a week’s worth of production.
