Weaker cattle futures triggered moderate to limited volumes of live trades at steady money on Friday. Cattle in the north traded at $165 live and $265 dressed, steady with last week. Cattle in the South also traded steady at $165 per cwt. Feedyards are fully current in their marketings and showlists for many are not large.
Feeder cattle sold mostly $2 to $4 per cwt. higher with instances of $5 higher. Calves traded mostly $2 to $6 higher with a full range of steady to $8 higher.
Wholesale beef prices tumbled lower for the week. Choice boxed beef closed Friday at $284.91 per cwt., down $4.41 for the week. Select boxed beef closed Friday at $271.54per cwt., down $5.32 for the week.
Estimated weekly cattle slaughter was 634,000 head, down 3,000 head from the same week a year ago. The year-to-date total was 6.293 million, down 2.5% from last year.
April live cattle futures fell 52 1/2 cents on Friday to $164.275, near the session low and for the week dropped $1.15. May feeder cattle futures lost $1.90 to $203.575 and nearer the session low. For the week, May feeders gained $2.625.
Analysts say the technically bearish weekly low close in April live cattle futures Friday sets the stage for some more follow-through selling pressure on Monday, but so far the pullback is just routine profit taking and a downside correction in a market that’s still fully bullish, overall. Much of today’s price weakness was due to a “risk-off” trading atmosphere in the general marketplace, due to the failure of a major U.S. bank based in California. More keen risk-off attitudes next week could limit the upside in the cattle futures markets.
