CoF Numbers to be Known after the Close

The in-delivery Dec contract and the soon-to-be lead month Feb contract both faded on Thursday, closing a tight ranged session 22 and 45 cents lower respectively. The deferred live cattle futures ended the day 15 to 30 cents in the black. USDA reported light to modest cash activity for Thursday, with Southern trade at $155 and Northern trade mostly near $157. The Thursday FCE auction saw no sales between $153 bids and $156 - $157 asks for the 1,045 head listed. Feeder cattle futures settled the session with 15 to 72 cent gains. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was $177.83 for 12/21, down by another 31 cents. 

The monthly USDA Cold Storage report showed 521.87m lbs of beef was in the cooler on November 30. That was 2.3% above October stocks, and was up 6.4% from November 2021. 

Weekly FAS data showed 4,518 MT of beef was sold for ’22 export during the week that ended 12/15. Japan was the top buyer with 3.5k MT for 2022 delivery, and 2.6k MT for 2023 delivery. The week’s total 2023 sales were 7.2k MT for a forward book of 50,889 MT. That trails last year’s forward book by 18%. 

Wholesale Boxed Beef prices for Thursday afternoon were 35 cents higher in Choice and $5.52 stronger for Select, tightening the spread to $23.40. The USDA estimated FI cattle slaughter for the week through Thursday at 459k head. That is down by 27k head from last week, and is running 19k head below last week’s pace. 

Dec 22 Cattle  closed at $155.900, down $0.225,

Feb 23 Cattle  closed at $157.300, down $0.400,

Apr 23 Cattle  closed at $161.325, up $0.150,

Jan 23 Feeder Cattle  closed at $183.975, up $0.150

Mar 23 Feeder Cattle  closed at $186.450, up $0.725