Cattle Bounced for Mild Gain Last Week

Live cattle futures rallied for the final trade day of the week, ending the day $0.42 to $0.5 in the black. April was up by $1.40 to $137.30 on Friday, but were $1.52 stronger from Friday to Friday. Thursday’s cash market was pretty light, with some $138 to $140 sales reported. The bulk of cash markets has been $138 so far for the week. Feeder cattle traded $1.40 to $1.2 higher on Friday, which amounted to a 0.1% gain for the week. The CME Feeder Cattle Index for 3/9 was down by 83 cents to $153.06.  

Weekly CFTC data showed cattle spec traders closed out of 8.7k longs, while adding 12.8k new shorts for the week that ended 3/8. On net, that left the group 21.6k contracts less net long to 38,551 contracts. That was an 18 week low. 

Morning Boxed Beef prices were $0.77 stronger in Choice and $1.74 higher in Select. Choice rib primals were $376.02 cwt. With a light 34k for Saturday, the USDA estimated the FI cattle slaughter for the week at 644k head. YTD slaughter is figured at 6.455m head.  

Apr 22 Cattle  closed at $137.300, up $1.400,

Aug 22 Cattle  closed at $135.075, up $0.425,

Mar 22 Feeder Cattle  closed at $153.275, up $1.625

Apr 22 Feeder Cattle  closed at $157.975, up $1.725