Cattle Gaining through Midday
Front month fat cattle futures are trading $0.70 to $1 in the black, though Feb is 60 cents from the day’s high. Nearby feeders are up by over 1% with midday gains of as much as $2.77. USDA confirmed some light cash cattle trade on Wednesday from $165 to $168 with the bulk of action in the South and down by $1-$6 from last week. The CME Feeder Cattle Index weakened another $2.32 weaker to $216.05 for 12/11.
Weekly Export Sales data showed a 5-wk high for beef sales with 10,563 MT booked during the week that ended 12/07. USDA listed South Korea and Japan as the top buyers, each with over 2k MT. The week’s export was listed as 14.5k MT for a 756.6k MT yearly total. That remains 14% behind last year’s pace.
Wholesale Boxed Beef prices for Thursday had Choice 63 cents weaker to $291.01 while Select was up by 8 cents to $259.29. USDA’s FI cattle slaughter estimate was 380k head for the week through Wednesday, up by 4k head for the week and 17k head more than the same week last year.
Feb 24 Cattle are at $168.150, up $0.925,
April 24 Cattle are at $171.775, up $0.825,
Jun 24 Cattle are at $169.100, up $0.825,
Cash Cattle Index was $170.740, from $170.74 last week
Jan 24 Feeder Cattle are at $220.050, up $2.675
Mar 24 Feeder Cattle are at $220.675, up $2.825
On the date of publication, Alan Brugler did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
