Cattle Markets Position into CoF Data

The Thursday session ended with cattle prices $0.90 to $1.40 lower on the board. There was some long liquidation ahead of today’s COF report. 

USDA confirmed light cash trade activity in the South near $143 on Thursday. Northern deals were higher compared to earlier trading in the week, with the bulk establishing near $145, from $144-$147. Bids on the Thursday FCE auction came up some for 2 sold pens, with one at $143 and $145 for the other. The other cattle went unsold from $143 bids to $144 asks. Front month feeder cattle futures ended the day with a 2 cent gain in Sep going into next Thursday’s expiration. The other months closed $1.25 to $2.27 lower. The 9/21 CME Feeder Cattle Index was $179.75 after a $1.65 bounce. 

FAS reported beef export sales from the week that ended 9/15 were 15,193 MT. That was close to last week and 4% lighter yr/yr. China was the top buyer. Beef exports from the report were 22% higher wk/wk to 18,621 MT. South Korea and China were the top destinations. 

NASS’s monthly Cold Storage data confirmed 515.676m lbs of beef were in the cooler as of the last Saturday in August. That was up from 511.9m lbs in July and was the most for August since records began in 1970. 

Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were weaker in the PM report with a sharp $4.03 drop in Select to $222.11. That moved the Chc/Sel spread back up to $26.29 as Choice was only down by 73 cents. USDA estimated the week’s FI cattle slaughter at 509k head through Thursday. That is 5,000 head above last week’s pace and is up 28k head from the same week last year. 

Oct 22 Cattle  closed at $144.850, down $1.025,

Dec 22 Cattle  closed at $149.350, down $1.400,

Feb 23 Cattle  closed at $153.775, down $1.125,

Cash Cattle Indexwas $142.000, from $142.00 last week

Sep 22 Feeder Cattle  closed at $178.200, up $0.025

Oct 22 Feeder Cattle  closed at $177.975, down $1.250