Front month fat cattle futures traded a nickel to half a dollar higher on Friday going into the CoF report. For October it was still inside Thursday’s action, and the board settled nearly 50 cents off the high. October was a net 75 cents higher Friday to Friday. The August contract closed at $141.60 with 8 trading days left to expiration. The cash market for the week was mainly $142 in the South and $146-$150 in the North. Nearby feeders faded into the CoF release, but were off their lows at the bell. Futures went home 2 to 90 cents in the red. The 8/17 CME Feeder Cattle Index was $179.86 after a 3 cent drop.
The weekly Commitment of Traders report showed live cattle spec funds were 16,964 contracts more net long through the week of 8/16. That came mainly as net new buying, and left the group 66,036 contracts net long – a 25 week high. In feeder cattle managed money firms were 1,736 contracts more net long after another round of short covering through the week. The group was 2,215 contracts net long in feeders as of 8/16.
The monthly NASS CoF report had 11.224m head of cattle in 1,000+ capacity feedlots on August 1st. That was down from 11.34m head in July for the 6th consecutive reduction since Feb’s record. July’s placements were 1.765m head, and marketings were a 5-month low 1.825m head. Compared to last year on feed inventory is still up 1.35% (the trade was looking for a 0.7% increase going in). Marketings were lighter than expected, and placements were up 1.85% compared to the expected yr/yr drop of 1.5%.
USDA’s Wholesale Boxed Beef prices from Friday’s PM report were mixed to tighten the Chc/Sel spread back to $26.34. Choice was down by 11 cents in the PM report and Select was up by 47. USDA estimated the WTD cattle slaughter at 661,000 head through Saturday. That is up 14k head wk/wk but down by 5,000 head from the same week last year. YTD slaughter outpaces last year by 1.1% with 21.428m head harvested.
Aug 22 Cattle closed at $141.600, up $0.325,
Oct 22 Cattle closed at $145.250, up $0.500,
Dec 22 Cattle closed at $150.975, up $0.425,
Aug 22 Feeder Cattle closed at $181.500, down $0.025
Sep 22 Feeder Cattle closed at $184.750, down $0.525
