Cattle Futures Continuing Weaker
Front month fat cattle are ~$1 off their lows for midday, but are still 20 to 60 cents in the red through Wednesday. That has the June contract sitting $5.22 in the red for the week’s move. Midday feeder cattle are mixed but mostly lower, within 30c of UNCH for midday. USDA had no cash activity for the week through Tuesday, last week’s cash trade was mostly near $188 in the South and mostly near $190 in the North. Those prices are now well above April futures. The CME Feeder Cattle Index for 3/25 was 7 cents weaker to $251.63.
Morning Boxed Beef prices were down by $1.22 in Choice and by $1.05 in Select for Wednesday. The rib primals were shown at $468.86 cwt. and $463.33 cwt. respectively. Tuesday’s FI cattle slaughter was 125k head, for a weekly total of 243k head. That compares to 242k head last week and 250k head for the same week last year.
April 24 Cattle are at $182.850, down $0.250,
Jun 24 Cattle are at $177.725, down $0.650,
Aug 24 Cattle are at $176.000, down $0.425,
Cash Cattle Index was $188.000, from $185.40 last week
Mar 24 Feeder Cattle are at $247.950, up $0.225
April 24 Feeder Cattle are at $245.700, up $0.250
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.