The cattle futures market is currently $0.77 to $1.52 higher on Thursday. Feeders are also up by $0.82 to $1.80 so far. CME has no deliveries listed through Wednesday with the oldest dated long at 4/18/23. There were no cash trades through Tuesday, from the $176-$179 sales last week. Feeder cattle futures closed 42 cents to 55 cents lower on the day, though March was down by $1.12. The CME Feeder Cattle Index for 2/5 was a dime stronger at $239.58.
Weekly Export Sales had 20.6k MT of beef booked during the week that ended 2/1. That was a 24% increase from the week prior led by sales to South Korea and China. Beef shipments for the week were shown at 16k MT for a 69.5k MT yearly pace – compared to 75k MT last year.
The WASDE update showed a 75 million lb increase for beef production in 2024 to 26.185 billion lbs. They pushed 110 million lbs from the first half of the year to the second half and added another 75 million lbs mainly to Q4.
USDA’s Wholesale Boxed Beef prices for Thursday morning were shown at $294.10 for Choice, down by 88 cents, and at $285.90 cwt. for Select, up by 48 cents. USDA cited the FI cattle slaughter for the week through Wednesday at 376k head. That is down from 379k head last week, though is 8.7k head more than the same week last year.
Feb 24 Cattle are at $183.600, up $1.375,
April 24 Cattle are at $186.325, up $1.525,
Jun 24 Cattle are at $183.500, up $1.300,
Cash Cattle Index was $178.740, from $175.00 last week
Mar 24 Feeder Cattle are at $247.450, up $1.900
April 24 Feeder Cattle are at $252.450, up $1.250
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.
