USDA’s weekly Export Sales data will be out shortly. Live cattle futures ended the day with 25 cent losses in the August ’23 contract to 62 cent losses in the Feb. Dec cattle dropped by $1.47 on the day to close at $151.57. USDA confirmed some moderate cash business on Wednesday from $150 in the South to $152-153 in the North and WCB. The midweek FCE auction sold none of the 1,081 head listed, with $151-$152 asks and $149.50 bids. Feeder cattle closed with 12 to 55 cent losses on the day. The 11/8 CME Feeder Cattle Index was $176.30, down by 29 cents.
USDA expects the 2022 full year beef output at 28.347b lbs, compared to last month’s projection of 28.136b and 27.948b for 2021. Their forecast for 2023’s output was 90m lbs lighter to 26.275 billion lbs.
Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were lower in USDA’s PM report with a 27 cent drop in Choice to $264.67 and an 83 cent drop in Select to $235.22 cwt. The rib primals were quoted $452.29 in Choice and $345.07 for Select. USDA estimated the week’s FI cattle slaughter at 381k head through Wednesday. That compares to 385k head last week and 367k head during the same week last year.
Dec 22 Cattle closed at $151.575, down $1.475,
Feb 23 Cattle closed at $154.150, down $0.625,
Apr 23 Cattle closed at $157.775, down $0.475,
Nov 22 Feeder Cattle closed at $177.725, down $0.550
Jan 23 Feeder Cattle closed at $179.650, down $0.250
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.
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