Live cattle futures are sitting 30 to 70 cents in the red for what could be the 3rd consecutive red day. Feb contracts are in the black at midday, but gains are limited to 2 cents so far during the delivery process. Front month feeder cattle futures are 27 to 80 cents weaker at the midday prints. FCE had 1,176 head listed in their Thursday auction, but saw no sales between $158-$160 bids and $162-$163 asks. USDA reported some more cash trade mostly near $159 for NE on Wednesday, with deals from $159 to $162 and $254 in the beef. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was just a penny higher on 2/14 to $183.07.
USDA reported the week’s beef export sales at 28,149 MT. That was up 71% for the week and was 22% above the same week last year. The week’s exports were 16,748 MT for an accumulated total of 91,826 MT. That is up 8% from last year’s record pace.
Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were $3.86 higher in Choice this morning and $2.10 stronger in Select. The Choice/Select spread was $16.24 from the AM report. The week’s FI cattle slaughter was estimated at 376k head through Wednesday, up by 6k from last week and 4k from the same week last year.
Feb 23 Cattle are at $162.550, down $0.000,
April 23 Cattle are at $163.975, down $0.625,
Jun 23 Cattle are at $159.775, down $0.425,
Cash Cattle Indexwas $160.310, from $156.00 last week
Mar 23 Feeder Cattle are at $186.500, down $0.825
April 23 Feeder Cattle are at $190.675, down $0.475
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. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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