Cattle Weaken on Tuesday

Live cattle futures kept to a relatively tighter range on Tuesday, with April printing a $1 range. Most of that was spent in the red, though the board was within 52 cents of UNCH at the close as Dec settled in the black by 2c. Deferred feeder contracts were also firmer for the bell, though the front months were 2 to 52 cents in the red at the bell. USDA reported cash cattle trades last week from $185 to $190, with Friday showing $186 sales for the South and $187-$188 for the North. USDA reported feeder cattle sales in the OKC auction totaled 6.4k head with prices $2-$3 above last week. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was 16 cents stronger for 3/18 at $251.02, now a premium to the futures.  

USDA’s Boxed Beef prices for Tuesday afternoon were shown at $313.22 in Choice and at $303.18 in Select. For Choice that was an 11 cent drop, while Select was up by 13 cents. USDA reported the Tuesday FI cattle slaughter at 122k head for a week to date total of 242,000. That compares to 233k head last week and to 251k head during the same week last year.  

Apr 24 Cattle  closed at $188.050, down $0.525,

Jun 24 Cattle  closed at $185.000, down $0.400,

Aug 24 Cattle  closed at $184.025, down $0.325,

Mar 24 Feeder Cattle  closed at $250.675, down $0.525

Apr 24 Feeder Cattle  closed at $255.075, down $0.025

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.