LITTLE EFFECT SEEN FROM COLD STORAGE REPORT

  The USDA monthly cold storage report
  for meats is expected to have little, if any, effect on
  livestock and meat futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange
  Monday and daily fundamentals will likely provide the bulk of
  direction, livestock analysts said.
      The increase of 66.4 mln lbs in total poultry offsets the
  22.6 mln lbs decline in total red meats. Fundamentals may
  provide most of the direction in futures on Monday, they said.
      "I think the market is going to be looking at some other
  things and accentuate whatever the action of cash markets might
  be early next week," Jerry Gidel, livestock analyst for GH
  Miller, said.
      Shearson Lehman livestock analyst Chuck Levitt said futures
  will be in the shadow of a little larger seasonal hog
  marketings pace next week. Also, Easter ham business was
  completed this week and there may be less aggressive interest
  for pork in general next week.
      "We needed some help from the cold storage report to avert
  a possible setback next week in the pork complex," Levitt said.
      Analysts agreed with CME floor traders and called the belly
  figure neutral to slightly negative. Although belly stocks were
  down 33 pct from last year, they exceeded the average
  expectation and actually showed a lighter than expected decline
  from last month due to an adjustment to last month's holdings,
  they said.
      However, analysts noted that the amount of bellies put in
  storage has been light since the beginning of March and this is
  a potentially bullish situation.
      Glenn Grimes, agronomist at the University of Missouri,
  said, "I would not look for (belly) storage during the next
  month or two to be heavier than a year ago - I think it will be
  less."
  

