Triple Digit Losses for Cattle Complex

Fat cattle futures pulled back on Wednesday with losses of $1.22 to $1.70. Feeder cattle bounced off their lows but were still down by as much as $2.15 by the bell. The Wednesday FCE auction had no sales for the 1,195 head listed. Bids were capped at $136.75 against the $138-139 asks. USDA noted light $138 sales in KS on Wednesday. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was $1.61 higher on 6/16 to $162.17. 

Going into Friday’s CoF report, the trade is looking to see a 1.5% yr/yr increase to June 1’s cattle on feed inventory. Placements are expected to be 0.2% below May ’21, while the average trade guess for marketings is 3% higher. 

Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were quoted at $266.57 cwt. in Choice and $245.99 in Select this afternoon. That was a $0.99 pullback and a $0.71 drop respectively. USDA estimated FI cattle slaughter at 376k head for the week through Wednesday. That is up 8k head from last week and 21k from the same week last year.

Jun 22 Cattle  closed at $136.125, down $1.700,

Aug 22 Cattle  closed at $134.925, down $1.325,

Oct 22 Cattle  closed at $141.075, down $1.225,

Aug 22 Feeder Cattle  closed at $173.150, down $2.150

Sep 22 Feeder Cattle  closed at $175.300, down $1.975