Fat cattle faded on Friday, down 12 to 90 cents, For the week, April weakened by 30 cents though in-delivery Feb was up by $1.37. USDA confirmed some light WCB catch up trade on Friday at $144, though maintained $142 for the week’s bulk price. Front month feeder cattle firmed into the close, though March and April stayed red at the bell. Deferred months rallied back to close 17 to 35 cents higher. The 2/16 CME Feeder Cattle Index was $162.14 after a 45 cent dip.
CFTC reported managed money firms at 86,061 contracts net long for live cattle futures and options as of the 2/15 settle. That was 4,219 contracts more wk/wk driven by short covering.
Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were lower on Friday, dropping $3.74 in Choice and $2.22 in Select. As per the PM update, the Chc/Sel spread was $3.22 cwt. USDA’s FI cattle slaughter estimate for the week through Saturday was 663,000 head. That is up from 659,000 head last week and was 114k head above the same week last year. That set the YTD total at 4.487m head , now trailing last year by just 11k head.
Feb 22 Cattle closed at $143.250, down $0.150,
Jun 22 Cattle closed at $141.500, down $0.650,
Mar 22 Feeder Cattle closed at $165.425, down $0.775
Apr 22 Feeder Cattle closed at $170.850, down $0.300
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