Cattle Turned Around for Mostly Higher Close

The live cattle futures market reversed course and ended Friday mostly higher. June and August futures ended in the red by 55 and 40 cents respectively, while the deferred months closed up by 10 to 15 cents. For the week’s move, June cattle were $1.80 in the black, while August was $1.05 lower. Feeders also firmed up for the close, going home UNCH to 35 cents higher. Cash trade this week was $188-$194 in the North, and near $186 in the South. The CME Feeder Cattle Index for 6/7 was $222.20 after another $2.92 increase. 

Weekly CoT data confirmed live cattle spec traders were closing shorts and adding new longs during the week that ended 6/6. That extended their net long to 114,637 contracts. Managed money was 18,070 contracts net long in feeder cattle after a week of light net new buying. 

USDA’s monthly update for quarterly beef production increased 2023 by 165m lbs, up by 55 for Q2, Q3 +65, Q4 +45. The Q1 for 2024 was also raised by 40m lbs. USDA now projects 27.086b lbs of production for CY 2023, and 24.795b for 2024. 

Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were $4.20 higher to $332.93, with rib primals above $500. Select boxes were shown at $305.71 after a $1.61 increase. USDA estimated the week’s FI cattle slaughter at 621k head through Saturday. That was below 671k during the same week last year and put the YTD total at 14.38 million head. 

Jun 23 Cattle  closed at $178.225, down $0.550,

Aug 23 Cattle  closed at $171.850, down $0.400,

Oct 23 Cattle  closed at $174.800, up $0.100,

Aug 23 Feeder Cattle  closed at $239.000, up $0.350

Sep 23 Feeder Cattle  closed at $241.700, up $0.225

Oct 23 Feeder Cattle  closed at $243.500, up $0.050