Cattle futures had a cool down last week, despite the strong cash trade. Feeders got very close to the all time high for the front month contract last week. Cash trade this week was $188-$194 in the North, and near $186 in the South. Thursday’s feeder cattle market closed with futures $0.45 to $1.22 in the red. The CME Feeder Cattle Index for 6/7 was $222.20 after another $2.92 increase.
Weekly CoT data confirmed live cattle spec traders were closing shorts and adding new longs during the week that ended 6/6. That extended their net long to 114,637 contracts. Managed money was 18,070 contracts net long in feeder cattle after a week of light net new buying.
USDA’s monthly update for quarterly beef production increased 2023 by 165m lbs, up by 55 for Q2, Q3 +65, Q4 +45. The Q1 for 2024 was also raised by 40m lbs. USDA now projects 27.086b lbs of production for CY 2023, and 24.795b for 2024.
Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were $4.20 higher to $332.93, with rib primals above $500. Select boxes were shown at $305.71 after a $1.61 increase. USDA estimated the week’s FI cattle slaughter at 621k head through Saturday. That was below 671k during the same week last year and put the YTD total at 14.38 million head.
Jun 23 Cattle closed at $178.225, down $0.550,
Aug 23 Cattle closed at $171.850, down $0.400,
Oct 23 Cattle closed at $174.800, up $0.100,
Aug 23 Feeder Cattle closed at $239.000, up $0.350
Sep 23 Feeder Cattle closed at $241.700, up $0.225
Oct 23 Feeder Cattle closed at $243.500, up $0.050
On the date of publication, Alan Brugler did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
