By now cattle marketers are no strangers to volatility. Four-dollar price spreads are becoming the new normal and hedged cattle feeders early week capitalized on a strong basis, $1-3 per cwt. lower. Those that ignored the early noise would trade steady by later week.
The South would see good clean up at $185 per cwt., steady to firmer there. The North saw the biggest trade range from $183 per cwt. to mostly $186 per cwt. and $290 per cwt. dressed.
The National Volume Friday sits at 101,367 head, cash and grids combined. That’s 28,535 head short of a week ago. Harvest was only off 2,000 head from the previous week and the cutout finished higher on the week at $307.57.
It is evident that not much was changed in the spot fundamentals. This should provide confidence as we move into next week. Early week traders will strengthen asking prices and the late week holdouts will want to push their momentum further.
