The afternoon portion lifted the cattle market off the lows to close 10 to 72 cents in the black for the day. Tuesday’s FCE auction had 1,039 head listed, but saw no sales between $173 bids and $176 asks. Cash trade remains unestablished for the week through Tuesday. Feeder cattle futures closed 37 to 75 cents higher on the day. USDA confirmed 9k head were traded in OKC’s feeder cattle auction, with prices $3-$8 higher. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was for 4/14 was $4.33 higher to $205.64.
Chinese custom’s data had March beef imports at 210k MT. That is 4.2% above March ’22, and set their full year total at 630k MT.
Ahead of the monthly Cattle on Feed report from NASS, analysts are looking for a 5% drop in inventory from April ’22. That implies 11.5m head within 1,000+ head feedlots, and the full range of estimates is to see between 94.4% and 95.5% of last year’s count. Placements are estimated 5.2% lower yr/yr on average. March marketings are expected to be 0.9% lower.
USDA reported Wholesale Boxed Beef prices at $307.06, up by $1.08, for Choice and $291.61 cwt., up by $2.29, for Select. USDA estimated Tuesday’s FI cattle slaughter at 128,000 head. That has the week’s running total at 249k head.
Apr 23 Cattle closed at $176.475, up $0.725,
Jun 23 Cattle closed at $165.200, up $0.325,
Aug 23 Cattle closed at $164.050, up $0.275,
Apr 23 Feeder Cattle closed at $205.925, up $0.375
May 23 Feeder Cattle closed at $211.500, up $0.750
Sep 23 Feeder Cattle closed at $229.325, up $0.650
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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