Front month cattle futures are trading with midday weakness of 40 to 60 cents so far. The FCE auction saw 200 of the 857 head listed sold for $157. USDA reported Thursday cash cattle trade from $153-$159, saying the bulk of Southern deals were steady with last week near $157. Feeder cattle futures are down by 52 to 80 cents so far through the Friday trade. The 1/04 CME Feeder Cattle Index was $180.31 after a 42 cent drop.
The USDA approved $9.6m in grants and loans to small meat packers, citing industry concentration with +85% of cattle slaughtered by just 4 companies in 2018.
USDA’s weekly Export Sales report showed 6,947 MT of 2022 beef cancelations, and 12,461 MT of 2023 sales. Japan was the top buyer with 1/3 of the total. Japan was also the top destination for the week’s exports with 4.5k of the 11.7k MT total. The weekly data had a record 937,758 MT of beef exports for the year through 12/29.
Converted Census data has 277m lbs of beef exports for November. That is down by 6% from October, and is 8% lower yr/yr. The yearly total reached 3.27b lbs through November – only 160m lbs behind 2021’s record as the second most all time with still the month of December to add.
Wholesale Boxed Beef prices for Friday morning were $1.60 stronger in Choice and $3.45 higher in Select. USDA estimated the FI cattle slaughter for the week at 385k head.
Feb 23 Cattle closed at $156.875, down $0.475,
Apr 23 Cattle closed at $160.725, down $0.550,
Jun 23 Cattle closed at $156.700, down $0.575,
Jan 23 Feeder Cattle closed at $183.075, down $0.725
Mar 23 Feeder Cattle closed at $185.775, down $0.775
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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