With decent Export Sales demand and cheaper feed grains, the fat cattle futures are trading triple digits in the red as ag futures generally drop through Thursday. The feeders are down $0.87 in Sep, but $2 in the other nearbys. Cash trade remains light for the week, with USDA confirming $184-$186 for the WCB in the few confirmed trades. The CME Feeder Cattle Index increased 55 cents to $253.42 on 9/19. 

Going into Friday’s COF report, analysts expect NASS to report a 2.3% lower inventory of ~11.023m head. The full range of estimates for Sep 1 is from -3.1% to -1% from Sep ’22. Placements are expected to be 6.7% lower yr/yr on average. The average estimate for marketings is to be 94.7% of LY. 

Weekly beef bookings were 13,746 MT for the week that ended 9/14 according to the Export Sales report. That was up form the CY low last week, but was down 9% from the same week last year. Both Japan and South Korea were buyers for over 3k MT. USDA reported 15,166 MT were shipped dur... Read more