Cattle Market Fades on Friday

Friday’s session ended the week with $0.40 to $1.07 losses in front month cattle futures. For the week, Feb fats were only a nickel weaker. USDA reported the bulk of cash sales were at $137 for the week, though there was some light activity at $136 earlier and a few trades up at $139. Feeder cattle futures ended the Friday session $0.87 to $1.65 weaker in the front months. For The CME Feeder Cattle Index was down another 10 cents on 1/20 to $161.10. 

USDA reported weekly beef export sales at 12,759 MT. China and Japan were the top buyers for the week with 3.9k and 2.1k MT booked each respectively. USDA’s data had 234k MT of beef on the books, of which Chinese bookings account for 20%. Weekly export shipments were reported at 14,058 MT. 

NASS reported 12.037m head of cattle were on feedlots with greater than 1,000 head capacity on Jan 1st. That was up 0.58% from last year, where the trade was expecting a lighter inventory yr/yr. Placements were above expectations with 1.963m head placed in December, or 6.45% more than Dec 2020. December marketings were lighter than expected with only a 0.22% increase yr/yr, or 1.857m head. 

Wholesale Boxed Beef prices for Friday afternoon were $292.41 in Choice and $282.33 for Select. That was a 57 cent decrease in Choice while for Select it was a 15 cent bump. USDA estimated FI cattle slaughter for the week at 636k head through Saturday. That is 18k head more wk/wk, but 26k head below the same week last year. 

Feb 22 Cattle  closed at $137.925, down $0.400,

Jun 22 Cattle  closed at $137.300, down $1.075,

Jan 22 Feeder Cattle  closed at $160.275, down $0.900

Mar 22 Feeder Cattle  closed at $163.300, down $1.650